Andromeda's Goodbye- Book Three
by iampotterlocked
Summary: With all the vampires knowing her secret, the wolves growing in numbers, graduation on the way, and yet another prophecy on the horizon, Meda is busier than ever. But when strange murders start happening in Seattle and all evidence pointing to the work of more vampires, Meda must make choices that could change the fate of many. Book three in the Andromeda Series.
1. Chapter 1

**Book three everyone! Hope you enjoy! And news about the poll- So I'm not too smart when it comes to computers, and just now realized that I could put the poll on my profile. So now, please just go to my profile and the poll should be at the top of the page. Please, I really need feedback on this. Thank you and have fun reading!**

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I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. Well, not really, but it would have if I could've felt pain. I thought I was doing the right thing. "Be the bigger person" as Charlie always told me. I tried to see Jacob a couple times over the weeks the Cullen's had been back. I even tried to call him. I knew that he wasn't too happy with them. The last time I saw him I'd ordered him out and threatened to throw a TV remote at him. So I did what I needed to in order to apologize and repair the friendship. I asked Charlie to ask Billy give him a short note which said, "I'm sorry that I threatened you with physical harm. May we please be friends again?"

"I miss you," he wrote. "But that doesn't change anything. Sorry."

"Son of a bitch," I said to myself, and threw the note in the trash.

"Meda?" Charlie called from downstairs.

"Coming!" I said. Before I stood up I yawned and cracked my back. I moved my box of throwing knives away from the door with my foot and turned off the light of my increasingly chaotic room before going downstairs. "What is it?" I asked him.

"Did you clean your room yet?" he asked, poking something in the pot.

"I'm catching up," I told him.

He sighed.

"On your schoolwork, I hope," he said.

"And on my killing things that are trying to kill me," I added with a grin. "Did you make sandwiches to go with that?" I asked him, pointing to the soup that filled the pot.

"In the fridge," he said absentmindedly.

I pulled out a ham and cheese sandwich and started eating it.

"At the table, please, Meda, I don't ask for much, but please, the table," he said, looking to the ceiling.

I snorted but did as he asked. "What's all this for?" I asked with my mouth full, gesturing to the dinner which he so rarely made.

"We need to have a talk," he said.

"Uh oh," I replied in a sarcastic tone.

"I'm serious Meda. We need to talk about things," he said, serving the soup. I stared at him. What could he mean, 'talk about things?'

He sat down and started eating.

"So?" I asked.

"So what?" he asked back.

"What things do we need to talk about?" I asked. I'd gotten help from Alice and Edward, the only two of the Cullen's still pretending to be in high school. My grades were going up, I was on track to graduate, something I'd never even thought I'd live to see…

"Graduation, specifically, what you're going to do with your life afterward," he said, in a tone that said this topic of conversation should be obvious. "So, do you have any plans?"

My palms started to feel sticky. I hadn't told him about the giants, or the quest, or anything really. He knew that there was a Roman camp, but didn't quite know anything about the plan for Leo, Piper, and Jason to fly the Argo II over here so I could get us to San Francisco as quickly as possible by sea to pick up Percy and the other members of the quest.

"Well… about that…" I started. "I do have plans."

"Really?" he asked. "Could've fooled me. I haven't seen one college application. Not a single one. Are you thinking of that community college in Port Angeles? Because you should go there soon to get in if you're going to-"

"Stop," I blurted, cutting him off.

He was silent as I searched for the words I needed. Two years ago, I'd been fifteen when I told him and Renee about the prophecy. He had been furious that I had kept it from him, and Renee had just cried uncontrollably. The entire time leading up to my sixteenth birthday they'd been terrified for me. I hadn't told him or Renee about yet another prophecy. I didn't want them to worry, truly, I didn't. And the vampires and other things had kept me busy. But I guessed my time for avoidance as up.

"Meda, what are you not saying?" he asked quietly.

"I have to tell you something," I started.

"Meda!" he said sharply.

"But I think mom should hear this too," I continued.

"What have you done?" he groaned.

"I haven't done anything; I just need to tell you something. Okay?" I said. I went upstairs and promptly tripped over my box of knives. The dresser banged against the wall and I cursed at it in ancient Greek as I pulled out three drachmas.

As I shone the flashlight through the crystal and asked for Renee, Charlie got paler.

"Hey, relax," I said in a soft tone with a smile. "I'm invincible."

"Meda?" my mom's voice came through before her image did. She was sitting on the couch alone, wrapped in a blanket. She muted the TV immediately and looked at me and Charlie.

"Hello Renee," he said.

"Hello Charlie," she said amiably.

"I suppose you're wondering why I called you here today," I started in a loud voice, smiling and opening my arms.

"Don't joke around Meda," Charlie warned.

"What's going on?" Renee asked.

"I have something to tell you two," I said.

"Oh my god," she interrupted.

"Mom, I can't tell you anything if you keep saying things while I'm talking!" I said.

"Sorry," she said.

"Well, as you remember, on my sixteenth birthday, Rachel Dare became the new oracle of Delphi," I started. "And after the sprit, well, possessed her, Apollo asked how she was feeling. Then she said something…um… she said a prophecy." I finished. I looked up from the floor into the stressed face of my dad and the confused face of my mom.

"And you're in it, aren't you?" Charlie said, breaking the silence.

I nodded.

He put his face in his hands. "Why did you not tell us this?" he asked.

"Because I didn't want you to worry," I said lamely.

"Meda, we're your parents. It's our job to worry!" Renee said in a choked voice. Her eyes started watering.

"But you'll be fine?" Charlie said the statement like a question.

I guess something in my face must've tipped him off.

"Oh god," he said, covering his face again.

"What does it say?" Renee asked while glaring at me.

"Are you sure you want to-" I started.

"WHAT DOES IT SAY?" she demanded.

I took a deep breath. "Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, to storm or fire, the world must fall, an oath to keep with a final breath, and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."

There was silence. Then they exploded at me at the same time.

"How dare you keep this from us? Did you learn nothing the first time around?" Charlie said.

"Meda, why didn't you tell me, you're my daughter, oh my god, oh my god," Renee chanted.

"Would you calm down?" I asked. "You know how good I am, both of you. I mean, come on! I'm nearly eighteen! Do you know how long that is in demigod years? I'm a senior citizen! And, also, Percy and I were prepared to die last time around. We were prepared to die so many times before that. And we lived. So, there'll be seven other powerful demigods on the ship with me. I'll be fine; I swear I'll come back in one piece." I said to reassure them.

"Insert one drachma," an automated voice said.

"Why do the rates keep going up?" I complained before adding another drachma to the rainbow. Charlie snorted at that.

Renee was rubbing her head. "You're going then?"

"Mom I have to. It's my job, besides, Percy will be there." I said.

She snorted. "You should be working at a bookstore or something, not saving the world."

"I should be doing that if I was mortal. But I'm not. And it's no use wishing I was human, because that doesn't change anything, not one thing," I said. "I have to do this. It's what I'm made for."

"You're not a machine!" Charlie said. "You're not made for anything!"

"Half-bloods were made for things like this. It's up to us to keep everyone else safe. You guys do know I love you, right?" I asked.

"Oh Meda, I love you too!" Renee sobbed. "I have to go now, alright?" she abruptly waved her hand through the image.

"I love you too, you know," Charlie said.

"I know," I replied.

"And you'll do your best to come back in one piece?" he asked.

"I always do," I said. There was a pause. "Are you still mad at me?" I asked.

"No," he said shortly.

"Well that's-" I started.

"I'm furious. You're grounded," he said.

"What?" I asked.

"Don't argue with me on this, Meda, you're grounded. No going out-"

"I never do unless it's to kill something!'

"No friends over-"

"What friends? Literally, the only people who talk to me are the Cullens!"

"No cell phone-"

"I never use it anyway!"

"And no TV."

"I hardly ever watch it anymore!" I protested.

"Now go upstairs and clean your room," he said sternly.

I sighed, and dumped my dishes in the dishwasher, rolling my eyes.

"I saw that!" he said.

I rolled my eyes again.

* * *

"He what?" Alice asked.

"Grounded. Me. Grounded. What is there to ground? I'm perfectly fine," I protested.

Alice jumped out of the way as I slammed my truck's door with more force than necessary. "Well maybe you should have told him what you said you should've told him." She said.

"Wow, Alice,' I said in false awe. 'You're so smart."

"Grounded?" Edward asked as he walked up to us.

"Ugh," I said. "Don't remind me."

"What did you not tell him though?" he persisted.

"I'm not telling you," I said haughtily and went to class.

All everyone decided to talk about was the serial killer loose in Seattle. It was a bit odd, but then again, people died all the time. And I hadn't heard anything about it, hadn't even had any bad dreams about anything, so I decided quickly that it wasn't that big of a deal.

But the murders were nothing compared to the hype over graduation. There were brightly colored posters everywhere. Charlie had pressured me into pre-ordering a graduation gown, which was an odd shade of mustard yellow (gag) and made me constantly check with all the teachers to make sure that I could graduate.

Angela was complaining of all the invitations she had to send out.

"Who are you inviting?" Alice asked me.

"Well…..' I said, trying to think of something. "I don't think Sally and Paul will come, she's writing a new book, and is super stressed about it. Renee- I don't know. Things just get so awkward when she and Charlie are in the same room." I trailed off, remembering last night's conversation. Even though she was only in an iris message the awkwardness at the beginning was horrific.

"Well at least you'll have Charlie," Edward said in what looked like an attempt to cheer me up.

But not Percy. The thought came to my mind. He should be here with me; we should be making fun of the yellow gowns, the cheesy posters, the tearful 'heartfelt' messages all over the school. We should be going to college together, spending the summer at camp. But instead we're separate. And he never even graduated. Unless there's an alternative high school in New Rome? The thought distracted me for a minute.

"Alice?" a sharp voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

Alice was staring out the window, a blank look on her face. She was having a vision, I knew that look. Edward and I shared a glance and I gently shook her shoulder.

"Alice?" I said loudly. "Wake up," I hissed at her in ancient Greek. That must've worked, her eyes immediately focused on me.

"Sorry," she said with an angelic smile. "Daydreaming, I guess."

I rolled my eyes- something I'd been doing a lot.

"Better daydreaming than having to sit through another two hours," Jessica said darkly as she stabbed her vegetables.

The conversation drifted from there, and I had time to wonder what Alice's vision was about. I let it go for the minute; I knew I'd get it out of her eventually. But then again, she doesn't know and didn't pressure me to tell her about the quest, so if I didn't need to know, I should respect her privacy, I thought.

After I got out of Spanish I focused mostly on not stepping in any puddles on the way to the truck.

"Meda?"

I turned around to see Edward walking to catch up to me.

"Hey," I said. I flinched as a raindrop smacked me right on the head.

"May I come with you?" he asked, gesturing to the passenger door.

"Sure," I said in a yawn as I unlocked it and climbed in.

We sat in silence as I waited for the truck to warm up and the initial rush of students to thin out.

"So you excited for graduation?" I asked to break the silence.

"This will be my nineteenth high school graduation, so no; I can't say I'm too excited. What about you?" he answered.

I took a moment. "Percy should be here," I finally said as I put the truck into reverse and drove out of the parking lot. He didn't reply to that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the wait, hope this chapter will make up for it. I've gotten a couple requests for more action in this book, and I'd just like to say that there will be lots and lots of action, but later in the book. As usual, my updating schedule is iffy, and I don't know when chapter three will be finished. I've also kinda started my hunger games fanfiction too, so the gaps between chapters might be a bit longer. also, PLEASE vote in the poll- its at the top of my profile page, I've had ten votes so far, and more would be so helpful.**

**Happy reading!**

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"Well?" I asked as I pulled into the driveway.

"May I speak to you inside?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied. That was odd.

He was silent for the first few minutes as I busied myself with getting my graduation information papers out and poured myself a bowl of cereal.

"Would you like to go somewhere?" he asked suddenly.

"What?" I was confused. Really, really, confused. "Where would I go?"

"Well Esme decided to get you plane tickets, as a thank you for saving our lives gift but…" he started.

I interrupted him with a laugh. "Plane tickets?" I asked incredulously.

He nodded, looking as confused as I was.

"Plane tickets?" I asked again, trying to make sure.

Again, he nodded.

"I'm the daughter of Poseidon, I put myself on a plane, Zeus will blast me and everyone on that tin tube right out of the sky," I said.

He nodded. "Wait," he said after a moment. "You've never been on a plane? Ever?"

"Well I was once, with Percy, when we were twelve. But the only reason we weren't killed was because we were returning the master bolt to Zeus, and if he had killed us he would have destroyed his best weapon. But he did give us weird looks as we gave it back to him though…" I said as I finished my bowl.

"Of course you did," he said sarcastically.

"Why bring it up though?" I asked, still curious.

"Just thought you might like to get out of town for a couple days, it is the weekend after all," he said.

"I'm grounded, remember?" I said. "Technically I can't have friends over, but I think you're fine with Charlie."

"Thanks, I suppose," he said.

There was yet another slightly awkward pause then I asked the question I'd been meaning to since he started the conversation. "Does this have anything to do with what Alice saw at lunch?" I asked.

"You saw that?" he asked.

"Everyone did," I said with a roll of my eyes. I caught myself as I reached the end, and then tried to unroll them. It didn't work.

"No, this does not," he said eventually, answering my question.

"Well what did she see though?" I asked.

He sighed. "She sees Jasper down south, in a strange place. But it's where his former…family was. But the thing is he doesn't want to go back there. Honestly, he hates it. Hates everyone there. So why would she see him there?" he stared at the wall, and then turned to face me. "Do you know anything about this? You do, don't you?"

I pointed to my chest. "Poseidon. Not Apollo. Get it right."

His cell phone rang at that and he picked it up. "Okay. I'll be right there," he said then turned to face me. "Esme called, we're going hunting and Emmett broke the fridge."

"How does that happen?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. "Probably was fighting with Jasper. Well, then, I have to go. Goodbye." He nodded once then left.

"Bye," I said. The door was opened and closed in record time and I felt the light breeze ruffle my hair.

I worked on homework, or tried to, until Charlie came home.

"Hey dad, how was work?" I asked him, trying to be nice.

"That won't work on me," he warned.

"What?" I asked.

"It won't get you ungrounded any easier," he said.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

"And it was quiet. Played cards most of the afternoon. I won," he said.

"Congratulations," I offered.

He added, "I was also on the phone with Billy for a while," after a moment.

"How's he doing?" I asked, making sure to keep my face neutral. Charlie knew that the Cullen's were vampires, but he didn't know anything about Jake and the other wolves, and I was going to keep it that way.

"His back's bothering him a bit," Charlie said.

"That's too bad," I said.

"He's also invited us over this weekend, thought the Clearwaters and Uleys over, the playoffs are starting," he added.

"Have fun," I said.

He sighed. "Are you two ever going to make up?" he asked.

"Well, I did tell him that I'd like to be friends with him again," I said sharply. "But he doesn't like the Cullen's coming back. And they're my friends, so I think he knows where to shove it."

Charlie laughed at that. "You should be a poet," he said.

"No, I should be a professional surfer," I replied.

"That'd be cheating!" he said, looking shocked.

I laughed that time, and put my papers away in order to eat dinner.

I was loading the dishwasher when a knock sounded at the door. Charlie went to open it. "I haven't seen you for ages!" I heard him say.

"Well, I decided to fix that immediately," a high voice said.

"Get out," I said, rinsing off my hands in the sink.

"Don't be that way, Meda," Alice said, poking me between my shoulder blades.

"Can't you leave me alone for any amount of time?" I asked her.

"I think the real question is, do you want to come over tonight?" Alice said. "We all miss you so much."

I pointed to Charlie. "Grounded," was all I said.

He rolled his eyes that time- was that where I picked up the habit? - And said, "get out, both of you," to us.

My mouth dropped open. "Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yes, I am, now get out of here before I change my mind," he said.

"Okay," I said, slowly getting my coat.

"On one condition," he said. Damn, I should've moved faster.

"Okay," I repeated, standing in place.

"You clean that room," he said.

"Fine," was all I said.

"Meds, I'm warning you. I don't want to see any knives, or tridents, or arrows, or dirty socks lying around tomorrow after I get off work, alright?" he said.

I laughed at how tridents and knives were in the same category as dirty socks. "You got it, captain," I said, doing a two finger salute.

"Don't get sarcastic now," he warned.

"Bye!" I said, closing the door behind me, still laughing. "I won't be out too late!" I added as I unlocked the truck.

I was welcomed to the house warmly, with the usual exception of Rosalie, who stayed in her room. Esme showed off the kitchen a bit, my breaking the plumbing was a good excuse to not only fix, but upgrade a vast majority of the kitchen. The fridge was missing, though, which she complained about lightly to Emmett.

Carlisle then took me aside and gestured to the cross on the wall. "Should I take it down?" he asked me in a low voice.

"Why?" I asked, looking at the nearly four century year old cross. It had belonged to his father, and really was quite beautiful.

He looked uncomfortable. "I mean, you know, does it offend them?" he asked.

"Who?" I asked. "They look fine with it," I added, looking over at everyone watching Edward and Alice play chess. He could read her mind to see which moves she was going to make, and she could look into the future to see any possible moves he'd make. Most of the game was played in their heads.

"No," he said, sounding frustrated, "does it offend them?" he asked, pointing to the ceiling.

"Oh," I said, taking a moment to realize how thickheaded I must've looked. "Nah, I wouldn't worry. The Greek gods aren't the only ones out there. Really, it was the strength of the belief of humans that created them. They're still around because they have a huge influence on western culture. So the chances that there's a god with a capital G is really good. Billions of people believe in that, so you're fine," I said. "Keep it up if you'd like."

He looked relived. "Thank you," he said, grasping my arm. He suddenly dropped it. "Am I allowed to do that?"

I rolled my eyes. "As long as I'm not actively fighting anything, go right ahead," I told him with a grin. He smiled at that, and Esme was behind him, looking relived. From the look on her face he had been having a crisis that I'd just successfully ended.

Edward sat in the truck as I drove back. I wondered why I couldn't be trusted to drive myself back but didn't say anything about it, just made sarcastic remarks about his age when he decided to start making jokes about the age of my truck. That weekend was odd, of course I was grounded and couldn't do anything, but I always had a visitor over. Alice was by on Saturday, and on Sunday Jasper visited, which was strange. I had a distinct feeling he didn't like me that much, but his ability to calm people lessened the awkwardness between us a little bit. To make matters worse I didn't even find one single monster to kill. On Monday morning I was eating breakfast while being bored out of my mind when the phone rang. I looked at the caller id and saw that it was Jacob's number. Briefly, I wondered if I should pick up at all-he had been ignoring me for quite some time. But I decided to pick up anyway. He'd been very adamant over ignoring me; something might've come up to change his mind. Besides, it could be Billy calling Charlie anyway.

"Hello?" I asked as I answered the phone.

"Meda," Jacob said. I closed my eyes, wondering why he decided to call me now after so long.

"Why are you calling me?" I asked.

He paused, and I heard him groan. "I'm sorry, Meda, really, I am. It's just that… I couldn't."

"Is it because Sam said so?" I asked him quietly.

"Something like that. Hey, are you going to school today?" he asked, the abrupt change in topic making my head spin.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked.

"No reason," he said.

"Yes, there has to be a reason!" I told him. The buzzing in my ear told me that he'd hung up. I cursed loudly and slammed the phone down.

"What's that about?" Charlie asked.

"You don't wanna know," I told him darkly.

I drove to school a bit more aggressively than usual. When I parked I took a deep breath and wondered what was going on with everything. I angrily grabbed my backpack and opened the door, slamming Edward's side.

"Why were you standing right there?" I asked him angrily.

"Where?" he asked, looking down at his feet and back at me.

"Like, I'm just saying, there were lots of places you could've stood, but why did you have to stand, right freaking there? Is there some sort of sign? Is that it? Like you have to stand right there, almost dent my door, and still not fucking move?" I asked. I'd gestured wildly throughout my mini rant and some people were passing by and looking at me strangely.

"Okay," he said, giving me a weird look.

"What?" I asked him.

"Could I ask you a question?" he said.

"You mean ask me two, because that question was a question but I don't think you wanted to ask me that question as the question you wanted to ask me," I said.

"Well, yes," he said, matching his steps to mine as I walked to the building. "But could you wait here, like, five minutes?" he asked.

It started to rain just then, and I fixed him with a glare.

"Well, it wouldn't have worked anyway," he said to himself as I hurried inside.

There was a crowd of students near the building, and as I pushed my way through them I understood why.

"Son of a bitch," I said, glaring at Jacob. Edward laughed at that. "Don't start with me," I warned him as I stalked up to Jacob. "Is this why you called me?" I asked him icily. He'd parked his motorcycle on the sidewalk, under the cover. I could see other students giving him a wide buffer and wondered why. Then I looked at him, really looked at him. He'd looked like he'd grown another couple inches-if that was possible-and he wasn't wearing a shirt. Not a real shirt, anyway. It was a half sleeved shirt with a leather vest over it. He wasn't wearing a helmet either, and his jeans had most certainly seen better days. Then I realized why people were staying away from him. He looked dangerous.

"Yes, it is," he said with a shit eating grin.

"You could've called, you know," Edward said quietly. Alice appeared behind him, her nose was slightly wrinkled as she looked at Jacob with distaste.

"I don't have a leech on speed dial, you know," Jacob said, his nose turned up as well.

"Oh my gods," I said quietly, covering my face.

"This is hardly the time or place," Edward started but was interrupted.

"Sure, I'll stop by your crypt after classes are out then," Jacob said.

"Oh my gods," I repeated. I didn't move my hands from my face. What was going on?

There was a pause. "Consider your message delivered and us warned."

That word snapped me out of it. "Warned?" I asked.

Jacob looked very surprised. "You didn't tell her?" he asked Alice and Edward. Alice put her hand on my shoulder.

"Tell me what?" I hissed, looking between the three of them.

"His…brother crossed the line on Saturday night," Jacob announced. "The real big one, really muscly…"

"Emmett," I supplied.

"Yeah, that one. Anyway, Paul was totally justified in doing what he did." Jacob finished this bit with a glimmer in his eyes.

"That was no man's land!" Edward said.

"Why were you two even near each other? Were you fighting? Did someone get hurt?" I asked all three of them. I turned to look at Alice. She didn't meet my eyes.

"Everyone's fine, Meda." Edward said.

"What. Is. Going. On." I asked them all in a low voice. I fought to keep control of my anger, the plumbing at this school was old enough, and I doubted I needed to make it any worse.

"Calm down," Edward said softly. "Nobody fought, nobody was hurt."

"You didn't tell her anything?" Jacob said. He looked honestly taken aback.

"Tell me what, Jake, since they obviously won't?" I asked.

He sighed. "She's come back for you."

That made a lot of sense. Why Alice had that vision, Edward asking if I'd like to leave, Alice coming over on Saturday, Jasper on Sunday. And that made me furious. Because here they were, trying to coddle me, and I could've taken Vicky out in a few minutes if I needed to.

"Well then," I said.

"Thought you had a right to know," Jacob said, shrugging his shoulders. "It's your life."

Edward practically growled. "She was never in danger." He said.

"We should get to class," Alice said.

I sighed. "Leave," I told Jacob.

The principal pushed his way through the crowd of students. "Is there a problem here?" he asked.

"No," I said shortly.

"Well then, let's not dawdle on our way to class," he advised in a nervous voice. The crowd slowly dissolved and the usual morning chatter started up again.

I looked at Jake again. I had missed him, missed him so much. Seeing him here made me want to go back to La Push and work in the garage again, fixing ruined motorcycles, hanging out with the group of his friends and so on. But I couldn't do that anymore, not with the information I'd just found out.

"You should leave," I said to him and turned around to get to English.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone, just a couple quick announcements. **

**1\. _PLEASE VOTE IN THE POLL FOR BOOK FOUR OF THIS SERIES_. The poll is located at the top of my profile page. so far, I've received ten votes, but I really really need more, because I know more than ten people read this series. If you want your voice heard, VOTE! **

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**3\. updating schedule for this series is going to be wonky. (love that word) School and graduation are my top priorities right now, and although I love you all, and thank you so much for following my work, I have to adult first. Right now I'm doing about one chapter every two weeks or so.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

I was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. School seemed more monotonous than ever. I just wanted to leave and take Vicky out myself, but stayed in class. At lunch I stormed over to the table where Alice and Edward were already waiting for me. If I knew any better, I'd say that they were nervous. Alice was rubbing her head repeatedly. I pulled out a chair violently, making it scrape across the floor. The noise was lost in the commotion of the lunchroom, but it had the effect I wanted-they both flinched slightly.

"So," I said.

Alice sighed and the look on her face told me she was dreading this conversation. "Yes Meda?"

"What the fuck?" I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"We're so sorry," Edward started.

"Yeah, you should be," I said. "But you know what? I'm not going to waste time on this shit right now. Because after school, I'm going to your house, and I'm going to yell at all of you at the same time, alright?"

"Would you please let us explain?" Edward said.

I contemplated that for a bit. "Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm going to yell at you all after school. Go right ahead."

"Last week, Alice saw Victoria come back," he started.

"Wait- how did you even know about that in the first place?" I asked. "I never told you."

"I saw it in Alice's mind. Jacob," he said the name like it was a terrible disease, "came to your house when she came back. And you had the fight with him, so Alice's memories showed me all I need to know."

"Alright," I said.

"So we all tracked her," he said, picking up where he left off before I interrupted him.

"Well not all of us," Alice said.

"Is that why you were at my house on Saturday?" I asked. "And on Sunday you left poor Jasper at my house too. You know how awkward it gets."

"Yes that's what happened," Alice said. "And Emmett and Jasper almost had her last night..."

"But she escaped to the Quileute territory," Edward finished. "And Alice couldn't see her anymore, because of the wolves."

Alice's nose wrinkled in annoyance.

"So then what happened?" I asked quietly.

He rolled his eyes. "The big gray one thought Emmett had crossed the line, then Rosalie reacted to that, and then everything fell apart. If it wasn't for Jasper I don't know what would've happened."

"Huh," I said. The bell rang. "I'm still going to yell at you after class," I promised and walked away.

The last half of the day was basically torture. I'd had my pencils in my hands at all times, and for some reason my knee was always bouncing. People gave me some space, and even teachers didn't comment on my lack of note taking. I guess something in my face must've tipped them off.

I followed Alice and Edward back to their house. Unsurprisingly, everyone was already in the main room when I walked in, so I didn't waste time on discussing anything that wasn't Vicky.

"Why didn't any of you tell me?" I asked, dropping my backpack on the floor and glaring at them.

"Meda dear, we didn't want you to worry," Esme said.

I was silent at that. Many sarcastic remarks were on the tip of my tongue, but I didn't say anything. Silence could be very loud, especially if I needed to get information out of someone.

"Aren't you busy enough?" Rosalie said to me in an accusatory tone. "Fighting monsters, saving the world, that sort of thing." She waved her arms at the end, making her little speech something that could set me off if she wasn't careful.

"Don't start anything with me," I warned her.

"But it's true, you're already busy with many things," Esme said, breaking up what could've been a fight. "We didn't want you to worry over something we could do easily."

"Oh," I said, putting my hand over my heart dramatically. "Well if it's so damn easy, why isn't she dead?"

There was silence. Good. I'd shocked them.

"Can't we take care of this one thing though?" Emmett said. "You got James, the wolves got Laurent, can't we get the other one? It's no fair if you do everything." He finished with a grin.

"Well it would've been fair to know a psychotic bitch was coming to kill me," I said. "But obviously a head's up would've been too much to ask."

"And we're sorry," Carlisle said. "You're right."

"Of course I'm right," I said.

He ignored that and went on. "We should've told you. We just thought that with the help of the wolves we could take care of it. We were wrong, and very sorry."

I stayed silent. I mean, I did get their point. They saw how busy and stressed out I was, and just wanted to help. But at the same time I had a right to know. I sighed and made my decision. "Next time she comes back you warn me. She's all yours in the meantime." Then I walked out of the house. Then I turned around and walked back in. they hadn't moved. "If she gets anywhere near Charlie I'm going to kill her myself, and none of you can stop me," I announced. Then I walked back out again.

My mind was going a mile a minute as I started my truck and drove back to town. I needed to talk to Jacob, I knew that. If the wolves and Cullen's were working together I needed to know. I wondered briefly if Alice would try to stop me, but she probably knew better. The drive took about a half hour, during which I cemented my plan.

The roar of my truck probably alerted Jacob that I was coming. He was already outside his house with a confused expression on his face. When I climbed out and locked the door, he was already jogging toward me and smiling.

I glared at him, and he slowed down a few feet away from me.

"Am I not allowed to be glad you're here?" he asked.

"No," I said shortly. "I'm still mad at you."

He grinned. And after a few seconds I smiled back.

There was a clattering noise and Billy pushed his wheelchair up the ramp and to the door. "Welcome back," he said with a small smile.

"Thanks," I said. I moved out of the way to let him pass.

"He went to the Clearwater's place," Jacob explained. "They're having a rough time."

"I'm sure they are," was all I offered. "I missed this," I told him after a pause.

"I did too," he said. "Why did you come back?"

I chose my words carefully. "Because you're the one that told me that she came back. I've yelled at them all since then, but right now I'm still mad."

"I didn't know they didn't tell you," he said.

"And, for some weird reason, when I'm here I feel vaguely normal," I finished. And I didn't lie. The Cullen's knew what I was, but to Jake I was still a normal human. And that felt nice. The Cullen's seemed to always be walking on eggshells around me, like they thought I'd snap and kill someone at any minute. Jake didn't think of me like that. When he saw me all he saw was a high school senior, someone with a missing brother, and a friend. He didn't see me as otherworldly or a freak. And I'd missed that more than I could admit.

"So what've you been up to since last time?" he asked. We started walking along the short road and were at the beach in no time.

"Are you sure you wanna know?" I asked him with a grin.

"Absolutely," he said.

So I told him about Edward going to the Volturi, and how everyone except Rosalie brought him back. I even told him about the Volturi coming to Forks, something that made him curse loudly and throw a rock into the ocean. He already knew everything, what was the point in hiding it? I gave him a look and he promised he wouldn't interrupt me again. When I got to the part about finding out about Vicky, though, he laughed when I described Alice.

"That psychic leech can't see us?'" he asked. "Fantastic!"

I gave him a bland look and he quieted down. We moved to a big driftwood tree, the trunk bleached white from the sun. We sat on it, like we used to.

"Sorry," he said.

He looked so forcibly guilty I had to laugh. 'Well that's pretty much it," I told him. "Now, you owe me."

"Owe you what?" he asked.

"So you and the Cullen's are working together?" I asked.

He shuddered at that. "Absolutely not!" he said. He made it sound like even the thought was disgusting. "It was an accident."

"Oh," I said. "Really?"

"Yeah," he said. "I was running patrol with Embry and Quil, when we came across the trail. It was pretty fresh, only…" he trailed off. "I'd say fifteen, twenty minutes old. So Sam wanted us to wait a few minutes, see what happens, but we didn't know if they told you, or if she went after you or not. But she had a head start, and went over the line before we could catch up. So we waited, hoping that she'd come back. Then the Cullen's chased her back here, but they herded her too far north." He said.

"How disappointing," I said, slightly sarcastically.

"It is!" he said. "And she was right on the line, and Sam and Jared caught up before the rest of us did. Then the big one…"

"Do you mean Emmett?" I asked.

'Yeah, him, he tried to tackle her, you know. But she's fast," he said.

I filed that information away; sure I'd need it later. "How fast?" I asked.

"I don't know how fast," he said. "But just, really, really fast. So she got out of the way, and then Emmett," he looked at me for clarification, and I nodded, "crashed into Paul."

I cringed. Paul was easily one of the most unstable of the pack. I still remembered telling him off on the freeway and him turning into a wolf in front of me.

"And then everything fell apart,' he said sadly. "The blonde went to him, and that freaked Quil out, then everyone stopped going after her and she escaped. The thing was, the doctor, tried to get everyone to calm down, but it didn't work until the other blond guy came over," he said.

"The doctor is Carlisle, and the 'other blond guy' is Jasper, you know that, right?" I asked. It would just be so much easier if he just knew everyone's name and I didn't have to guess who he meant.

He rolled his eyes. "Well then Jasper is annoying. I knew about the emotions thing, but it didn't stop me from hating it. But I couldn't get mad until later," he mused. "It's a pretty cool thing though."

I laughed. For some reason the idea of Jake being able to calm people down was funny. He was always so full of life and ready to kill a vampire, the idea of him wanting everyone to be mellowed out was hilarious.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Just the idea of you being all calm and everything, calming people down and stuff," I said.

He smiled. "Yeah, it would be dumb with me doing it." He paused, looking like he was seriously debating whether to tell me something.

I looked at the sea. It was beautiful, calm, and quiet. I could feel the power, though. "Spit it out, Jake," I told him.

He sighed. "What did he tell you?"

"Basically what you told me," I said. "Less detailed, of course, but that's pretty much it."

"Huh," he said. Well she'll be back soon, and then we'll get another shot at her," he said cheerfully.

But would I really be told next time? I made a mental note to watch Alice's behavior carefully, and for that matter, everyone else's too.

"Do you ever think about what would've happened if you didn't cliff dive?" he asked me.

That was an odd question. "No, why would I?" I asked.

"Well then they wouldn't have come back," he said. "They wouldn't know anything."

I thought about that. "I don't waste time thinking of what ifs, Jake. I'd kill myself if I did. Besides, can't change anything in the past. That's done."

'Yeah,' he said. We were silent for a while.

I realized that the sun had started to set while we were talking. The world was silent except for the chirping of birds and the rushing noise of the ocean.

"You should probably get going, right?" Jake asked. He sounded kind of disappointed. "Or else Charlie will be wondering where you went off too."

I cringed. "And I'm grounded, I forgot," I said.

He looked very surprised. "How did you get grounded?" he asked. "I thought you were one of those 'I can't do anything wrong' sort of kids to him."

"Well, apparently, I can do wrong," I said. "I know, I know, I'm just as surprised as you are," I said sarcastically, drawing a laugh out of him.

He stood up and I realized how tall he'd gotten within the past few months. "Then I should walk you to your truck," he said.

We were silent as we went to the truck. The roar of the engine made me jump a little bit, and then we laughed at the silliness of my reaction together. The last thing I saw before leaving the town was Jacob waving to me in the rearview mirror.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry I haven't been updating as much, finals KILLED me. So the only real piece of news for this series, as well as my Harry Potter series, is that there's a Beta reader! they've caught a lot of mistakes, and hopefully everyone will be able to tell a difference in the writing. the plot will stay the same, though. I wont say who it is, because I don't want anyone asking them for spoilers. Thank you for reading, and for being so patient!**

**THE POLL FOR BOOK FOUR IS AT THE TOP OF MY AUTHOR PROFILE PAGE, SO FAR I'VE RECEIVED 19 VOTES. PLEASE VOTE TO LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!**

**Happy reading!**

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Charlie's car was in the driveway by the time I got back. It was dark, and rain was pelting the windshield steadily as I killed the engine. I sat in the dark truck and sighed. Somehow I doubted that Charlie would let me off the hook for this, but on the other hand I didn't think he'd mind me seeing Jake. Charlie thought he was good for me, and if there was one thing he really wanted me to have, it was normal, mostly human time.

I let myself in, and braced for the argument. "Hey," I said. He was on the couch watching a basketball game.

"Hey yourself," he said. He muted the TV and I cursed on the inside.

"I saw Jake today," I said. Please let this work, I chanted inwardly.

"Did you?" he said after a pause. "And how did that go?"

I edited as much out as I could mentally. "Good," I said after a while.

"Fine," he said. "I give up."

"What?" I asked.

"You're not grounded anymore. There's not much I could do to stop you, and besides, you're almost an adult," he said.

"Are you serious?" I asked. For some reason I was elated, but then again it wasn't as if the official un-grounding would make any difference on my actions.

"Yes, I am. But I won't change on one thing. You are graduating. Period. No exceptions. Do you understand me?" he asked sternly.

I smiled. "Course I do. And I will, I promise."

"Well then," he said. "Finish your homework."

"Fine," I said.

When I walked up the stairs of my room to start on my homework, I felt like something was seriously off. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up, and there was just this gut feeling of wrongness that I couldn't put my finger on. Nothing monstrous, as the monsters were hardly known for their subtlety, but something was different. Charlie was still watching TV, and probably didn't hear the click of my pencils turning into knives. I lowered myself and slowly worked my door open with my toe. The door swung open silently, and I stepped inside the room quickly, raising my knives to stab anything if something was in my room.

"What the-?" a voice said and something cold wrapped around my right wrist from behind me. I dropped low and twisted my wrist hard to break the grip of whatever was holding me. My knife clattered to the floor, and I brought my left arm around to hold the edge of the blade against the throat of… "Edward?" I asked.

He looked like he'd wet himself. "Please get that away from me," he squeaked.

I retracted the blade and picked up the other one.

"Meda? Everything alright?" Charlie asked.

"I'm fine, Dad, just dropped my knife," I said, glaring hard at Edward who was rubbing his throat. "Oh stop it," I said as I closed the door. "Nothing even happened."

"Yes, but still," he said. He was eyeing my pencils suspiciously. "Do they all have that?" he asked.

"Weapons? Yes, we do. Magic pencil knives? Nah, that's an inside joke between Percy and me," I said blandly. "But the real question is, what are you doing in my room?" I sat down on the bed and kicked my shoes off while I waited for him to talk. He was just staring at me, or more accurately, my knives that were both pencils. "If you're not going to talk, you could always leave," I said.

"I do want to talk," he said slowly.

"Then sit," I said, gesturing to my test chair, "and talk."

He sat down awkwardly, and turned around to make sure that my door was closed. "I understand that you went to La Push today," he started. He let that hang in the air.

"And?' I asked.

"Do you think that's a wise idea?" he asked.

I groaned and put my hands over my eyes. The reminder of Athena was incredibly unwelcome. She hated me, and heavily disliked Percy. She disliked Percy simply on the principle that he was a child of Poseidon. She hated me because one time when I was eight she disguised herself as an ordinary mortal (why do they always do that?) and when Annabeth and I went to an ice cream shop, she warned me to stay away from Annabeth or else I'd be hurt. So of course, eight year old me had cursed at her loudly, thrown an ice cream cone at her, (it had landed in her face, and the shocked expression was priceless) and then ran while dragging Annabeth behind me. I didn't learn who that woman was until I was 13, and she'd made it very clear that the only reason she let me live was because it would be rude to kill me.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked me, snapping me out of my memories.

"Nothing," I said. "But why would it not be wise? Aren't you working together to get Vicky?"

The side of his mouth tipped up at the mention of the nickname. "We're not working together," he corrected. "It's more of a…uneasy alliance. They have as much claim to kill her as we do, as long as we both stay on our respective sides of the treaty line."

I nodded. I wasn't going to pretend to understand why they hated each other so much. Sometimes things were the way they were, and nothing could change them. "So why do you think I shouldn't go see Jake?" I asked.

"I'm not saying you shouldn't," he hastily replied. "I'm just saying that you need to be careful. They're dangerous, and really, at this point, young werewolves feel emotion much more strongly than humans. They anger quicker, especially."

Emily's scarred face and Paul exploding at me were both fresh memories. "I understand where you're coming from," I said, trying to be diplomatic. "But considering I practically took your head off just now, I think I'm fine."

He nodded, looking like he expected that answer. "Do they know about, your…. Um….." he waved at me vaguely.

"No," I said. Then a thought occurred to me and I glared and leaned forward while pointing my pencils at him menacingly. "And that is not your secret to tell. Any of you," I hissed.

He backed up and held his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I'm not planning on it, I promise," he said.

"Or any of you," I reminded him.

"Nobody will," he reassured me.

I sat back. "Good," I said. "I will still see Jake though," I added.

"That's no problem," he said. "In fact it might be helpful in restoring relations."

"Are you serious? What am I, some sort of diplomat?" I asked.

"If you're up to it, sure," he with a blinding grin. "Put in a good word for us, wouldn't you?"

I yawned, suddenly exhausted. "I'll think about it," I said. "Wait, how did you even get in here?" I asked.

He tilted his head to the window.

'Seriously?" I groaned. "That's so…cheesy."

He laughed once. "Well, that was really all I came here for." He said awkwardly. "Are you going back again tonight?"

"Nah," I said. "I'm busy, that Calc class is killer."

"Is it?" he said. "I don't find it too difficult."

"Well if I'd taken that class eight hundred times I'd find it easy too," I snapped.

His cell phone rang and he held it up to his ear and talked quietly in a voice I couldn't pick up. I focused on taking out my books and supplies out on my small desk.

"I'll get going," he said.

I turned my head and watched him prop open the window and climb out, balancing on the tree branch as he shut the window. I smiled and waved as he left and then one second he was there, the next he was gone.

I woke up well rested, which was unsettling, because usually I'd have horrible dreams, nightmares, really, but I hadn't had one for weeks, not since Orthaeus left. But I wasn't going to complain about it, and when I got to school I realized that I was going to need the energy. The sun was filtering though some clouds, so obviously neither Alice nor Edward was going to come to classes today. I was looked at and whispered about all day, which was simultaneously embarrassing and beneath my notice.

When the day was finished I took a few minutes by myself in my truck to just savor the silence. It seemed like I got fewer moments to just be alone and not worry about anything. But the looming graduation and prophecy of the giants made it very difficult to not worry. Leo, Jason, and Piper were going to leave Camp on June first and come pick me up on the coast in the Argo II, and we had to get to the Roman camp by the summer solstice. One part of me felt like that was so far away and I didn't need to worry about it, but the other part was having a nervous breakdown. I wouldn't even let myself think about Percy's mental condition, the idea that he wouldn't know who I was made me feel dizzy. Shaking it off, I started my truck after the initial rush of students had abated and drove home. Surprisingly, a silver Volvo was in my driveway.

I sauntered up to it and knocked on the window, surprised that it was Alice instead of Edward. Then again, this was one of the more 'normal' cars they had. They had BMW's, Cadillac's and Porsche's that would stick out in a small town like Forks.

"Hey stranger," she chirped.

"Car theft, Alice? Is this what you've stooped to?" I joked.

"May I come in?" she asked. She looked slightly nervous, and I wondered what was wrong.

"Of course," I said, puzzled. What could be the matter?

She pulled a hood over her head and left the car. I saw she was wearing gloves, so her hands wouldn't sparkle. We went into the house quickly, and I set my bag down and got something to eat. She looked very nervous now, and I knew something was wrong. I set my fork down and faced her.

"Was anyone attacked?" I asked. After a monster attack like the one at the house, it wasn't uncommon for a few latecomers to cause trouble a few days after. But that was weeks ago, if nothing had happened, so something else must be wrong.

"The boys left on a hunting trip," she started.

"Was anyone attacked?" I gritted out.

She sighed. "No," she said. "But I have to ask you something."

"I'm listening," I told her.

"It's just…" she fidgeted.

"I won't know what's wrong if you don't tell me, Alice," I reminded her as gently as I could.

"I'm the…oracle, right?" she said.

"Yes, you were." I stressed the last word. What was the point of this? This was common knowledge, well, common to her.

"And what you did at the house, I just felt so…helpless. The other oracle knows how to defend herself, right?" she pleaded.

I understood then. But I didn't think it was a good idea. "I can't do that, Alice," I said.

"But you said at the camp you-"

I ended that sentence with one of my own. "My trainees can handle celestial bronze. You, and everyone else, can't do that."

"I know," she said. "But I mean, I should be able to do more than just run, right? I know how to deal with vampires, so I'm not completely out of the loop, but other types of…things… I don't know how to hold them off, even," she argued.

My head went into my hands. Then, suddenly an idea occurred to me. We often trained with staffs, sticks, and hand to hand combat before we graduated to actually holding sharp blades. And neither of us was particularly destructible, so if Alice got a good punch in it wouldn't hurt me so much.

"I don't have anything you could work with," I told her. "We could do staff fighting, but I don't have those anymore. I graduated from those when I was a kid. I'll teach you some hand to hand, if that's alright. Who knows, you might pick something up you can use against Vicky."

She jumped up and squealed. "I knew you'd agree and propose this!" she said.

I rolled my eyes.

"I saw that!" she said.

I scowled and rolled them again. "Come on, leave, I have homework to do," I groaned.

"No," she said. "You didn't let me finish, we're having a sleepover."

I looked at her blandly. "Repeat that."

"Sleepover. You and us. Tonight." She said this in a very determined tone of voice.

"I can't," I told her. Part of me really did want to go, get as much time with my friends as I could, but I knew that I'd need to call Charlie, and that could attract monsters, and I didn't really want to do that, not after the peaceful weeks I'd had.

"Why not? I already called Charlie, and he said yes, and you're not allowed back until tomorrow," Alice told me.

"I'm not allowed back in my own house until tomorrow?" I asked.

"Nope," she told me.

"You're serious?" I asked. "Because if I get grounded again, I swear…" I let the threat hang.

"I'm not lying, he wants you to go," she said.

"Alright," I started going up the stairs to get my pajamas and toothbrush. "I'll be down in a minute!"

"And he wants you to order your graduation gown tonight!" Alice added.

That was really all the proof I needed that Charlie had indeed given his permission for the sleepover.

When Alice pulled into the garage I saw yet another car in the lineup, a bright yellow sports car that was spotless and gleaming in the soft lights. I got out of the car awkwardly, my backpack clanging. Alice looked over at me and wrinkled her nose.

"Is all that really necessary?" she asked.

"Better safe than sorry," I said. "Where can I put this?"

"Inside should be fine," Alice said. "And since I knew you'd agree…"

I set my bag down and checked to make sure I had everything I needed. When I turned around Alice was holding two large sticks that looked like they were only a foot shorter than I was. They were perfect, almost exactly like the ones at camp.

"Where did you get those?" I asked.

"From a hardware store, actually," she said. "I did get us five each, hope that'll be enough."

Of course she already planned everything perfectly, I thought.

Rosalie and Esme had drifted down and were looking at both of us with curious looks on their faces.

"Well where are we going to do this?" I asked. "Outside?"

She looked at Esme and Rosalie. "That should work, right?" she asked.

"Don't see why not. The chances of Victoria attacking you are very low, and we'll keep an eye out," Esme said. Rosalie nodded, her eyes flicking back and forth across the perfectly kept lawn. The sun had receded a bit, so it would be safe for Alice to go outside, but then again, nobody really came this far into the woods anyway.

I stuck a short knife into the waistband of my jeans, grabbed a stick and headed out. It was mildly cool, but I took my jacket and shirt off anyway. With the speed Alice had, which was definitely an advantage she had on me, I'd probably feel warm in no time. There were soft gasps as Esme and Rosalie took in my scarred arms, although there were more under my tank top.

"Alright," I said, ignoring the looks of pity and sorrow from them both and spoke to Alice. "You cannot move at your fastest speed, I won't be able to see you and fix any problems you have."

Alice nodded, gripping the stick tightly in her hands while shifting from one foot to another.

"Don't hold it too tightly," I said, "you'll get it knocked out of your hand quicker. Let it have some wiggle room. And stop swaying. Make up your mind where you're going to stand," I snapped. "Your center of gravity is between your hips, ground yourself." I checked to make sure that she'd changed what I pointed out. "Now attack me," I ordered.

She came at me with the speed of a human, thankfully, and then we started sparring.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the delay in the chapter! I've written an iZombie one-shot as well as started a series based on The Flash, called Hydra. (hint hint read them please) **

**I also want to remind everyone- THE POLL! its at the top of my profile page, and so far I have received 19 votes, so if you haven't voted yet, PLEASE DO SO. Your feedback is important to me! :)**

**Happy reading!**

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It was about half an hour after I realized that Alice was a quick learner. In that time we worked on her stance, strike forms, and her habit of overreaching. She learned and adapted better than everyone else I knew, but then again, comparing her to a human or even a half human wouldn't be too fair, would it?

"Well, I think that's it," I wheezed. "Good job, I'm taking a shower." I was dripping with sweat and had to take a moment to get my breath back, but nobody was impolite enough to say anything about it.

"You know what this means?" Alice said excitedly.

"Naptime?" I asked, hoping that was the case.

"Makeover!" she responded, actually pumping her fist in the air. I rolled my eyes, ready to tell her off, but stopped myself. June wasn't that far away, and besides, I should be grateful for all the time I'll be able to spend with my friends. Not like you're sure you have that much time left, an incredibly annoying little voice said in the back of my mind. Shut up, I told myself mentally.

I yawned loudly, causing her to groan. The rest of the night passed quickly, with Alice evening out the ends of my hair and insisting on painting my nails. I made the choice of bright sparkly pink nails, if nothing else, it was a bit different. Rosalie, unsurprisingly, made sure to stay away and probably worked on her cars, and Esme was busy watching an interior design show on the huge TV, Alice informed me that Esme wanted to redecorate the kitchen. I didn't really understand the reasoning behind it because the kitchen was already tastefully decorated, but at the same time I understood that because they didn't sleep, life must be incredibly boring and having something to do isn't a federal crime.

"I'm staying over, right?" I asked Alice through a mouth full of pasta.

"Of course!" she said.

"But you don't have any beds," I reminded her.

"I should've been a girl scout," Alice said. "We're prepared. You can take Edward's room."

I'd been in his room before; it was on the second floor and had a pretty nice view. Of course, the sound system and what seemed to be hundreds, if not thousands of CD's and records were a bit intimidating. Flicking on the light, I paused.

"See? I told you!" Alice giggled.

There was a single bed in the center of the room, forcing the couch to be pushed to the side. "I could've slept on that, you know," I reminded Alice gently.

"You could have, but you shouldn't," was all she said in response.

I stuffed my snarky response down and opted for the more polite approach. "Thank you," I said.

'You're welcome," she answered. "Now that wasn't so hard, was it? You only just changed your mind."

"I am disappointed though, couldn't you at least have gotten me a nice coffin?" I asked. Alice thought that was hilarious, and left the room cackling at the top of her lungs.

I sighed and set down my backpack. I quickly changed into my pajamas and fought off exhaustion in order to work on my chemistry homework for about thirty minutes. When the words started blurring together on the page I decided to give up and stumbled into the bed.

And then suddenly I was wide awake. Punching the pillow in frustration, I sat up and sighed, pulling back the covers to get back to my homework when there was a soft tapping at the door. I picked up my pencils and extended them both into blades.

"Come in!" I chirped, expecting Alice and planning on sarcastically telling her off for being unhospitable, but instead I was surprised.

"Am I interrupting something?" Rosalie asked while eyeing my knives.

"No!" I said sarcastically. "Come right on in!"

"Should I come back another time?" she asked.

My curiosity won out and I put my knives away. "No, seriously, what do you want?" I asked.

"I am here to apologize," she said.

"For what?" I asked.

She took some time to gather her words. "For mistreating you. I should've been much more polite and kind to you, but I wasn't."

"I'm used to it," I said. Probably not the best words, but they were true. She seemed incredibly disturbed by that, but I shrugged it off.

"Can I talk to you for a while?" she asked hesitantly.

"Sure?" I asked hesitantly.

"Did anyone tell you how I came about?" Rosalie asked after an incredibly awkward moment.

I searched my memory and came up blank. Rosalie just existed and never liked me, that's all I ever knew of her. "No," I said honestly.

"I supposed not. They're too kind, really," she said. "I hope that this will explain my behavior to you in the past."

"Well, I'm all ears," I said. "Well, really, I'm not. The closest thing to that is Argus. He's all eyes," I told her.

"Okay."

"Please, go on, I really am listening." I sat on the couch and she sat on the other side and faced me.

"I was eighteen in 1933,"she started. "I was beautiful and my life was perfect. My father," she stopped then, and then started after a pause. "He worked at a bank, and he provided the money and stability. I knew that poor people existed, but he always said they brought it on themselves."

I snorted, and that earned me a wry smile.

"He thought he earned everything, that luck had nothing to do with it. My mother was a homemaker, with me and my two younger brothers. But that wasn't satisfying to them, and they always said that my beauty was their greatest asset. I suppose I see why, all these years later. But I was pleased to be me, beautiful, shallow me. I wanted to be adored, with a huge flowery wedding everyone would envy. I wanted a house someone else could clean and a kitchen that I'd never use."

"You'd go insane," I informed her.

"Yes, I would've. But that was life back then. I had a close friend, and she married a plumber when she was seventeen, and they had a little boy, Henry," she said. "I wanted a baby so badly. Someone to love, who'd love me back." When she started her voice was dripping with venom, with none of the wistfulness. "There was a family, the Kings," she spat. "They owned everything, including the bank my father worked in. Royce King wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. One day, my mother forgot my father's lunch, and told me to roll up my hair and put on that lace dress with the matching gloves to go give it to him. I thought it was odd, but did it anyway. That night roses came, and every night afterword. From Royce King the second."

"I guess your parents were happy," I said.

"Ecstatic," she said. "He was good looking and rich. Roses and violets came nightly, my room was full of them, and I couldn't get the smell out of my hair. We were engaged in two months. Now, when I saw my friend and her son, I wasn't jealous anymore, because I knew that I'd get everything soon. When I was walking home from visiting them one night, it was dark, I was surprised. I remembered thinking I could call my father to escort me, but decided against it, it was such a short walk. There were drunken men under a streetlight nearby my house. I paid them no mind until one called me. It was Royce. He waved me over, and like an idiot, I went. His friend was from Atlanta. He looked at me like I was something he could buy. Then Royce ripped my jacket off me, while making lewd comments. I still remember the sound of the buttons falling to the street. His friend ripped the pins from my hair. I screamed, they laughed." She stopped there. I knew what happened.

"They thought I was dead, and left me there. Royce joked how he'd need a new bride. And it was snowing, freezing cold. I wanted to die, more than anything else. That's when Carlisle found me. He smelled the blood. I hated them, you know, they were all so much more beautiful than I was. He picked me up, and I felt myself fading, then he bit me. It was horrible," she said. "I was burning alive, I couldn't stop screaming. He told me everything, what I was becoming."

She stopped. I could understand it, the pain, the feeling of burning alive that she was explaining. The Styx did the same thing, burned us from the inside out until we didn't know who we really were anymore.

"It sounds stupid but when I saw my reflection and saw that I was even more beautiful than before I was happy. It wasn't for years that I saw the curse of beauty. I just wanted to be loved, really…" she turned to face me, and then asked a question I dreaded. "Do you know why they do things? Why they wanted that to happen to me?"

"Sometimes they punish people for doing something they don't like," I started. "But sometimes, things just happen, you know?"

"Couldn't you ask them?" she asked.

I laughed once. "I try not to think of how much control they have over me or us in general," I said. "We do have free will, you know. Your beauty didn't have anything to do with it. Some people are just rotten from the inside out. Besides, if I wondered how much of my life was me, and how much was getting my puppet strings yanked I'd go insane. I hardly ever talk to them anyway. Nobody likes me much."

"Why don't they like you?" she asked, sounding genuinely curious.

"I'm not supposed to exist," I said. "And most of the time I wish I didn't."

She nodded.

"If it makes you feel any better, I've seen Aphrodite," I told her. "And she's a thousand times prettier than you'll ever be. She's also a grade A bitch."

"Should you say that?" she whispered.

"It's true, and they know it. At least I think they do. Anyways, they need me," I said. "Whatever happened to Royce?" I asked to distract her.

"I've killed five people in my existence. I picked them off one by one, saving him for last," she smiled. "I knew he'd see his friend's deaths and know what was coming for him. He was hiding in a house with walls as thick as a bank vault's with armed men. Wait…seven murders," she said. "It was good, saving him for last. I could control myself better. I made it a production of it, stealing a wedding dress for the occasion. I drew it out for quite a while… am I scaring you?"

"Did he suffer?" I asked.

"I made sure of it," she said.

I nodded and grinned. "Good."

She smiled back. "You see, I didn't like you because I thought you were human, ordinary, normal. And you could've had things I'd never had. You could have children; grow old with someone, live a full and happy life. And I was so jealous, because I'd never have that, no matter how long I live. It's petty now, but that's how I felt. I saw your life as something full of wonderful choices that I'd never get. Of course, now I know better. But still, I'm sorry I treated you that way."

"You've got nothing to be jealous of or to feel sorry for," I said. "I won't even make it to twenty. Very few do, you know."

"But Alice told you he loves you, didn't she?" she said.

"Yes."

"Are you going to do anything about it? I care for him, he's my brother."

"I'm a senior, he's seventeen, that wouldn't be fair, would it?" I said with a smile.

"You're not a senior," she said, sounding incredibly confused. "Well, a senior in high school, but not a…you know..."

"I said the average life expectancy is twenty, I'm going on eighteen," I reminded her.

"Oh," she said. "How do you live like that?"

I chose my words carefully. "I've met my uncle, and I have friends down there. I'll be able to drop by and say hi," I said. "I'm actually looking forward to it." I grinned at her, and she looked very confused. When I yawned she looked guilty.

"I should let you sleep," she said.

"Don't worry if I wake up screaming!" I said with a wave as she left.

I didn't wake up screaming, which I was thankful for because that would have been incredibly embarrassing. Alice and I carpooled to school in one of the less flashy cars. The crowd of other students carried us to class, and of course it was raining, so everyone was eager to get under the covered walkways. The first half of the day carried on like normal, with me sitting with Alice for lunch as we discussed repainting one of the cars she had. She wanted it in bright red, I was putting in a vote for light green.

As I exited my chemistry class there was a deafening roar that came out of nowhere. Before I thought anything, my pencils were out and extended as I braced myself for…Jacob? I put my knives away immediately and walked up to him. "What are you doing here?" I hissed.

"Breaking you out," he said with a grin.

I looked at him, prompting him for more. "Figured you'd like a break from the leeches," he said.

I sighed, "Jake, I told you…"

"Yeah, yeah, sorry." He didn't sound sorry. "Anyway, hop on."

"And where are we going?" I asked.

"Out," was all he said.

I got on behind him while grinning, and he kicked the bike off and out of the school.


	6. Chapter 6

**I am so sorry for the long wait! Good news, the chapter is a little bit longer than usual, and I will be graduating soon! If anyone else is graduating, congrats! Thank you for sticking with this series, please don't forget the poll (at the top of my author profile) and happy reading!**

* * *

Being with Jake again after time apart was…good. I felt better, lighter, as though a weight was lifted off my chest. Like usual, we raided the kitchen cabinets and went out on the beach again. The rushing sounds of the water calmed me, and every now and then Jake and I would try to see who could throw a rock farthest into the water. He always won, much to my dismay.

"So, come on, you dragged me all the way out here, I need some gossip," I joked. "What's going on with you guys?"

Jake looked at me with wide eyes. "What did he tell you?"

"What?" I asked. "Wait, so something is going on? Is she close?"

"No, it's not that," he said. He wrinkled his face, lookin deep in thought.

"You don't have to say anything you don't want to," I reassured him. Gods knows I've kept things from him, insisting that he tell me everything would be incredibly hypocritical.

"It's just a pleasant surprise, you know," he started. "Usually everyone knows about what everyone's thinking, it's a pack thing. Having someone know, but not know everything in our heads, that's nice." He nodded to himself and fell silent. "Quil joined."

"Oh," I said. "So now he isn't so out of the loop, I guess."

"Yeah," Jake laughed. "He also imprinted. That's the third one now." He added the last more like an afterthought, and his face told me that he was really only half with me, that he was somewhere else in his head.

"Imprinted? How does that happen?" I'd never heard the term before, and judging by how he said the word it was very important that I did.

"It happens to a few members in the pack, remember how Emily and Sam act around each other?" he asked.

I pretended to gag, and he laughed. "That's what we all think too, but imprinting, it's like… soulmates? Yeah, that's the word."

"So there's been three matches made in heaven so far?" I asked.

"Well…yeah…" he said. "It actually happened last week, when Quil went to Emily's house for the first time," he started.

"Wait so Quil and Emily?" I asked.

"No! No, that would be so wrong," Jake shuddered theatrically. "He met her niece, Claire." He paused for a moment, and I simply waited. "Claire's two." He said.

"What? Isn't that, you know, weird?" I finished lamely.

"No, it isn't. With soulmates, it's like you're literally made for each other. Right now, Claire will have the most perfect, caring big brother she could ask for. In ten years, she'll have a best friend. In another ten, she and Quil will be as happy as Emily and Sam We can't age, as long as we keep shifting, and they'll work out perfectly together." There was a hint of bitterness and longing in his voice.

"Do you think it'll happen to you?" I asked, filing away the 'we can't age' information for a later date. I kicked a rock out of the path, hearing it clatter against the other rocks.

"No," he said. "And honestly I don't want to. When it happens, it's like, everything important in your life changes to revolve around her. Nothing matters more than she does, everything is centered on her. And I don't know how to live my life like that."

"Well," I said, thinking of Annabeth and Percy, as disgusting and slightly nauseating they were. "Maybe if it was the right person it wouldn't be so bad.

"Maybe," was all he offered.

We stared at the ocean in silence, until he broke it by jabbing his elbow into my ribs. "Race you to the garage," he said suddenly.

"You are so on," I said and sprinted down the path.

"Cheater!" he yelled behind me as I laughed.

It was a tie, we reached the garage at the same time. I insisted that I won, of course, but he wouldn't buy it. So in the end we agreed to disagree and Jake ordered a pizza. While we were waiting we rode our motorcycles up and down the road until it started raining and we retreated back to the garage. I complained about school to Jake as we ate, and he complained about school and Victoria. Since Vicky was technically my fault, I didn't really say anything back on that subject.

When the sun started setting I informed Jake that I should be getting back, and that I had been staying at the Cullen's. He rolled his eyes at the last part, but grudgingly put my backpack in the backseat of his car and started driving. I had to give him directions, and he complained lightly the entire time, saying that they should've lived closer in town. When Jake was about a mile from the house, I told him to pull over.

"What? Why?" he asked.

"I'm going to walk the last bit," I said.

"Meda, you don't have to do this, I'll be fine," he reassured me.

"I want to," I said, reaching over the seat to get my backpack.

"Meda," he started again.

"Jake," I said, "Shut up, I know what I'm doing. Now get over yourself and unlock the door, or else I will break this window."

He sighed and unlocked the door. "Today was fun," he called.

"Let's do it again sometime," I said over my shoulder as he pulled away.

Unsurprisingly, within a few minutes a roar of an engine cut through the silence of the forest and Alice's neon yellow Porsche hurtled down the road toward me.

"I am so angry at you!" she said with a grin. "Now get in! The seats are heated, or so I've been told."

"Can I sit on the roof?" I asked.

"There's mud on your shoes, so absolutely not," Alice said. Oh well, it was her car, what she said was final. I was just not looking forward to her chewing me out for ditching class.

After a brief moment of silence she asked, "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah, I did," I said.

"Good," she replied. There was another long pause, with nothing but the hum of the motor breaking it. "Do you want to go to Tacoma tonight?"

"Not really," I said.

"Alright. It's your loss," she said.

"That's not going to change my mind," I warned her.

We did our homework and watched cheesy zombie horror movies until I was tired enough to go to sleep. Like usual, I kept a knife under my pillow and hoped that I wouldn't wake up screaming at the top of my lungs. The good thing was, I didn't wake up screaming from a nightmare. The bad thing was, there was something in the room that woke me up and I had no idea what it was. There was what sounded like snuffling in the corner of the room. Shaking off my tiredness I kept my eyes closed and inched my hand under the pillow until I found the handle of my knife. I cracked my eyes open and saw that there was a light on in the corner of the room. There was also jazz music playing softly. I rolled my eyes and chastised myself for overreacting.

"I woke you up, didn't I?" Edward asked.

"Yeah, you did," I said.

"I'm sorry, would you like me to leave?" he asked.

"Well it depends, what time is it?" I asked.

"Six thirty-four," he answered.

I groaned. "Might as well, I get to go home today," I said.

"I'll leave you to get ready," he said.

"When did you get back?" I asked.

"About four hours ago. I've been reading Carlisle's article on new antifungal treatments and how they can prevent drug resistance over time," he said. "It's very interesting."

"Sounds fun," I said with an awkward smile.

"Oh and Meda? Please don't unexpectedly run off to La Push again. I know he's your friend, but some warning would be nice. We're still not on the best of terms, you know." He said this while fidgeting with his papers and halfway out the door.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to stab you for that or anything," I said. "And we'll see. I might, I can't tell the future when it comes to Jake."

"Neither can Alice, its driving her up the wall," he said with a dry smile. "Well, I'll just um…leave you to it." He slipped out of the room and left me to get changed and ready for the day.

Alice dropped me off that after an uneventful day of classes. Charlie was already back and eating cereal out of a plastic Tupperware container.

"Isn't that poisonous?" I asked.

He shrugged and continued eating. "You don't mind casserole for dinner, do you? Sue Clearwater gave it to us."

"Sounds great, I'm just going to go upstairs and put my stuff back, alright?" I asked.

He waved me off, looking deep in thought. A part of me wanted to ask him if something was wrong, but I decided not to. Charlie was the type of person who would tell me if he wanted me to know, it was best not to push anything on him.

I went upstairs to throw my dirty laundry in the wash and get some more of my clothes. When I opened my door the first thing I saw was that my room was much cleaner than I expected. Charlie made me put all the half-blood stuff away before I left to hang out with Alice, but even after that I had dirty socks in a pile by my desk, and I could swear that I had that old ripped pair of jeans hanging over the chair. My bed was made, neater than usual, and I had no pillow.

"Did you clean my room?" I asked Charlie.

"No, why?" he asked.

"My pillow is missing," I said dramatically.

"Well I didn't take it. You know I don't want to mess up your…stuff," he said. "Alice went up there to get your clothes, maybe she stole it."

I struck a pose and said, "I must go avenge the honor of my pillow!" before going back upstairs and starting the washing machine.

As soon as I pushed the button the doorbell rang. Charlie went to go get it as I was standing on my toes and pushing the soap back on the shelf.

"Hey Edward, what are you doing here?" Charlie asked.

"I'd like to talk to Meda, if that's alright," Edward said.

"Sure, she's upstairs. Do you want anything to eat?" Charlie asked.

"No thank you, I just ate," Edward replied. He walked upstairs slowly, then darted into my room and around the house in about two seconds. He stopped in front of me with a worried expression as the breeze from his movements ruffled my hair.

"What the?" I asked quietly so Charlie wouldn't hear.

"Someone's been here," he said.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I picked up the scent on the way here. It's not too fresh, so probably early this morning. Charlie wasn't harmed, so there was something else. Your room looks like the target- the scent is strongest there."

"Did you recognize who it was?" I asked.

"It wasn't Vicky," he said, trying not to grin at her nickname.

"A werewolf?"

"No, it was one of us. The wolves have their own disgusting smell."

Then it clicked. "Then whoever it was, they'd have to know about me," I whispered. It wasn't that I was freaked out about a vampire knowing I wasn't human, it was the lack of surprise I had now.

"You have a lot of weapons, don't you?" he asked.

I nodded and went back in my room. I opened my closet door, sighing in relief when I saw my trident propped up in the corner, then did a search of my room. The serrated knife was still in my nightstand, my throwing knives were in the box under my bed, and my bow was on the top shelf of my closet.

"No weapons taken," I said.

"That's not surprising. The metal used, it feels…wrong," he said.

"Alice couldn't hold the sword, neither could Orthaeus," I remembered.

"Maybe it was a deterrent?" he asked.

I paused. "There's a chance they didn't even see it, the Mist might've covered it. Does it work on vampires?" I asked.

"How could mist have covered your weapons?" he asked.

"Wait there," I said. I opened my nightstand and rummaged around until the hunting knife with the serrated edge was in my hand. I focused on covering it, until I saw a piece of paper instead of that in my hand. I turned around and put my hand out to Edward.

"What's so great about that?" he asked.

I had the magic melt away, and his eyes grew. "How did you do that?" he asked.

"It's to protect mortals from seeing things they shouldn't. We can manipulate it if we need to, but usually it does the job automatically," I explained.

He took out his phone and dialed someone.

"Who are you calling?" I asked.

"Alice. I can't believe she didn't tell me about this," he said. He sounded incredibly hurt, but it was strange Alice didn't say anything. She usually made sure we knew everything…

"Well get jasper and Emmett over here. Charlie might not be safe. Yes, I'm bringing Meda," he said.

I took the knife and strapped the sheath to my jeans and made sure that I had my pencils on me. When I turned back to look at him he had his head in his hand and was shaking it back and forth. "Well I'm sure she'll tell you that," he snapped and abruptly hung up. "We need to go, now," he said and we were out the door and in his car speeding away in minutes.


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm so sorry about the wait, I graduated in late June, and right now I'm taking a super intense nursing assistant course. But thank you so much for everyone who reminded me to update, this is for you! I've also started a fanfiction that takes place in The Flash (2014 TV Series) titled "the Immortal Hydra" so if you're a fan, please check that out!**

**Happy reading!**

* * *

Unsurprisingly, everyone was assembled in the front room by the time we arrived. Alice was fidgeting and looking out the giant windows with the bridge of her nose wrinkled in concentration.

"What the hell happened, Alice?" Edward said as soon as we walked through the door.

"Keep talking like that to her and I will remove your head," I snapped at him.

He sighed. "I'm sorry," he said. I nodded and turned my attention back to Alice.

"I didn't see anything. I had no idea!" Alice said.

"How is that even possible?" Rosalie asked. "You see everything."

"Not the wolves," Carlisle said. "Could it have had something to do with them?"

Edward shrugged. "There was no scent. It was definitely a vampire, no doubt about that. Alice, he would've been in her room, waiting for her. She could've died."

I didn't bother telling anyone that it was highly unlikely that I would die before the prophecy started up, mostly because Alice was stressed enough without the added information.

"I'm watching Italy, Victoria, and Meda's every move. What's next? Charlie? The whole street? I can't focus on that much at once!" Alice sounded like she was on the verge of a breakdown.

Edward ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in odd places. It would've been funny if the situation wasn't so serious. "Well if you're watching Italy, why didn't you-"

"It wasn't them, I don't think, I would've seen it."

"Are you sure about that?" he asked back. I didn't like the tone in his voice, Alice sounded like she was close to crying.

"I wasn't kidding," I reminded Edward.

"I'm sorry," he said. He paused for a moment. "Let's look at it logically, who could it have been?"

"Victoria," Esme said.

"I know the scent," Edward countered.

"The Volturi aren't doing anything, Aro didn't command anything," Alice said. I wondered why she was watching them so closely but guessed it was probably because he was the leader of the most powerful group of vampires, as well as someone from both the Greek and vampire worlds.

"How he can command anything is beyond me," I muttered.

"That could be the problem," Edward said. "You're waiting for an official command for something, and…"

"Someone might've done it alone," Alice finished.

I giggled. "Like a lone wolf!" I said and laughed some more, because hey, it was funny. Everyone except Rosalie cracked a smile.

"But if there was an intent to hurt you, Alice would've seen it," Esme said, still sounding incredibly confused.

At that moment Emmett and Jasper burst through the door.

"They're long gone, the trail went all over for a bit, then to the east. They had a car waiting," Jasper said, moving to Alice and embracing her.

Emmett had something green in his hand and gave it to Carlisle. "Do you know it?"

Carlisle sniffed and shook his head. "Never encountered it before."

"Maybe its just coincidence," Esme said.

I rolled my eyes. Coincidence was not a word in my vocabulary. If someone was in my room, it was probably to kill me, of that I was sure.

"Wait, hear me out," Esme said. "Whoever it was might've just been curious. Our scents are all around her."

"Then why not just come here?" I asked.

Esme smiled. "They might be scared. It's very unusual for so many of us to live in a permanent residence. But Charlie wasn't hurt, so they might not be an enemy."

Everyone took a moment to consider her theory.

"I still don't buy it," Edward was the first to say. "The timing, it was just too perfect."

"They made no contact, so I couldn't see anything," Alice added. "It was like they knew."

"Alice, I hate to ask you this, but please, watch Charlie when you can?" I asked. I could defend myself, but my all too human father would be another story.

"I'll try," she said reassuringly and that was that.

The ride back was much quieter. I worried a bit about Charlie, how he didn't know Vicky was after me. I made a mental note to get him a knife or something. Maybe with some luck he could hold off a vampire for a few minutes until I or someone else could get him. I was lost in my thoughts for a moment so I didn't really hear Edward talking until he was halfway finished.

"Sorry, what?" I asked.

He gave an apologetic smile. I was saying, you shouldn't worry too much. There will always be someone around. We won't let you or Charlie be hurt."

By the time I was back Charlie had finished dinner and left some for me in the fridge. As I heated it up he informed me that Jacob called again, and wanted me to come down to La Push soon. I decided not to call him, I was really too tired to do anything.

The next morning, Jacob called back. Edward was making himself at home in the living room, sitting on the couch and listening for anything strange with his bat hearing.

"Hey Jake," I said. Edward's head snapped around to look at me.

"Meda!" he sung off key. "Come back, come back, darling!"

I rolled my eyes at his antics but laughed anyway. "Maybe sometime soon," I said.

Edward held his hand out to the phone and I was mildly stunned by the gesture I forgot to listen to Jake. "I'm sorry, what?" I asked.

Jake paused. "One of them is with you, aren't they?" he asked.

"Yeah, its Edward, is it ok if he talks to you?" I asked.

He sighed. "Put him on."

I handed the phone to Edward and started wiping down the countertops. He gave a short version of what was going on to Jacob, then paused as Jacob responded. "That's actually a good idea, if you could please talk to Sam," he said.

Well that was interesting. What good idea, and why was I not notified of it?

"Of course, ten minutes," Edward said and handed the phone back to me.

I inched over to the front door and looked at the driveway suspiciously as I started talking to Jake again. "Yes?"

"Do all of us a favor and convince the lee-" he started.

"Hey!" I snapped.

"The vamps," he corrected himself. "That the best place for you is the reservation, at least if they're gone. Billy's going to get Charlie here as often as possible too."

"Good, good," I said. Was that a movement in the bushes?

"So we're going to rearrange some boundaries, give us some more advantages when going around Forks. Sam might not like it, but I'll do my best until he comes around." Jake continued.

"And by do your best that means…"

"Don't shoot at a big wolf if you see it," Jake said.

"Alright, I'll try to keep it in mind," I said.

"See you soon," he said.

That was surprising. "You're coming here?" I asked.

"Um, yeah, to track the visitor," he said.

"See you soon," I said and waited.

"See you soon," he repeated and hung up.

As soon as the conversation was over I grabbed my pencils off the counter and extended the blades.

"Meda, where are you- oh my god what are you doing?" Edward hissed.

"The shrub moved. I'm going to kill it," I informed him and slowly opened the door.

Grimacing when it creaked, I darted out to within three feet of it. The leaves rustled again and…

A squirrel darted out.

I looked at the sky and groaned, trudging back to the door.

"I hope that was informative," Edward said.

"Shut up," I said back.

There was a brief pause, then he said, "I should go."

"Why?" I wondered.

"We're not…actively enemies, but we probably shouldn't be in the same space. Don't worry, I'll be far enough away that nothing will happen. Besides, you're more than capable of taking care of yourself," he said with a grin.

"Bye," I said and he was gone before I finished the word.

Within a few minutes there was a knock at the door. I opened it to Jacob's grinning face. "I suppose wearing actual clothes would kill you?" I asked.

He gave me a bemused look. "We can't carry everything, you know," he said.

"What?"

"They don't pop around with us. You remember that day with Paul? My shoes breaking?"

"Oh, yeah, sounds obvious now," I said, laughing at myself a bit.

He laughed along with me. "I can smell something, but do you know where the scent's the strongest?"

"Upstairs, my room," I said. I quickly ran through my memory and was positive there was nothing suspicious out in the open.

"I'll be down soon," Jake said.

I spent the few minutes he was gone vacuuming crumbs under the table and counter. I hadn't done it in weeks, and the dust wasn't really attractive.

"Your room stinks," he informed me.

"Buy air freshener," I said back.

For some reason he thought that was hilarious. "See? This is why we need to hang out more," he not so subtly said.

I pulled the plug out of the wall and started winding it up. "I'll try, it's just, you know, homework, this stuff, and…other stuff, you know?" I said.

"Yeah," he said, and trailed off.

"Everything alright?" I asked, punching him lightly in the shoulder.

He snorted air out of his nose in response. "Please, though? There's a bonfire tonight. Emily and Kim will be there. Quil too, and he's kinda mad that you knew before he did."

He made those puppy dog (no pun intended) eyes at me, probably to become more persuasive. "I'll try," I said.

He seemed happy enough with that. "Good, that's all I'm asking. Besides, do you really think that someone can get through all of us? Please."

"Trust me, I don't doubt your mad skills," I joked. We both jumped when the washing machine blared loudly.

"Oh my gods, I hate that thing," I said.

"Gods?" Jake asked.

Shit, I had really said that out loud. For lack of a better explanation, I stuck my tongue out at him. He thought it was hilarious and was still laughing when he left.

Trudging up the stairs, I braced myself for the usual fight with the washing machine door, and after a couple minutes of sporadic pulling, pushing, and swearing under my breath the whole time I finally got it open. There was movement out of the corner of my eye and I sighed.

"You gonna help or what?" I asked.

"I don't get paid for this you know," Alice said. "Also, the wolf left the door unlocked."

I grinned. "Like that's going to stop anything."

Alice looked deep in thought at that. "You do have a point," she said.

I kicked the dryer door shut. "I always have a point and you know it," I said. "Also, I am going to La Push tonight."

"I know, you disappeared."

Figured. That reminded me… "Speaking of disappeared, where did you put my stuff? Because Charlie said he doesn't go in my room…"

"What stuff?" she asked. She looked at me like I was speaking gibberish to her.

I sighed and went into my room. I pointed at my made bed. "No pillow," I said. I pointed at the foot of my bed. "No dirty socks," I said. "Also, there was that pair of jeans on the back of the chair, and it's not there, and it wasn't in the wash, so, if you could please please please tell me where they are, that'd be fantastic."

"How would I know?" she asked. There was a sudden shift in her facial expression, and when she spoke again, her voice was tinged with fear. "When did you notice they were gone?"

"As soon as I got back, why?" I asked.

"The things that were gone, they were things you wore, slept on," she said.

"Yeah, and?"

"Things with your scent," she prompted.

It took a few moments but it eventually clicked. I threw my hands in the air. "Of course Esme was wrong, "I groaned.

But Alice wasn't really listening to me. "It was evidence, but why? Proof? What makes you so important?"

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"Sorry," she said apologetically. "But I do have a point. We and the Volturi are the only ones that know about you, why would someone else need proof you exist?"

"The monsters already know of me. They've known for years, and I've even talked on the phone a few times," I said. "I wasn't having too much trouble until Orthaeus showed up. But they probably thought he wasn't too much of a threat. They're kinda scared of me," I said proudly.

Just then her phone rang, breaking her train of thought. "Carlisle," she said. She quickly explained my missing things, and from her expressions I could tell that Carlisle didn't have any new information on my visitor. And also by the look on her face Carlisle had something else that made her feel a lot worse. She hung up abruptly and in a flash was over by the recycling, pulling out the paper.

The front page story was Seattle, of course, except now the numbers were higher. "This isn't just one anymore, it's a few," Alice said.

"Who's creating them?" I asked.

"I have no idea, but what really bothers me is the fact that no move by the Volturi has been made yet. This is their job, they have to keep us a secret. There was a mess in Atlanta, nowhere near half as bad as this and they cleaned it up quickly. Why are they failing now?" she asked.

"Maybe they want it," I said.

"They could never," she argued.

"Who knows?" I asked. "Do you think you could talk to Carlisle about it tonight?"

"Hm? Oh sure, yeah, I'll probably talk to Jasper too, he's sort of an expert," she said. "Have fun tonight."

"Thanks!" I said.

"Oh and Meda?" she asked when she was almost out the door. "Be careful, okay?" she was gone before I could fully formulate a response.


	8. Chapter 8

**A wild update appears! I'm so sorry for being late with this. This chapter is much longer due to the story of the wolves. I've paraphrased what I could, but of course, all direct quotes belong to Stephanie Meyer. **

**Happy reading! :)**

* * *

I'd just finished pulling on a new shirt Alice had given me from the bottomless pit that was her closet when I saw the glint of silver through my window. I sighed, making sure that my weapons were secure before grabbing my coat and opening my window. Charlie was working late that night, so I didn't have to tell him goodbye. I turned off my light and hopped to the tree branch and turned around to close my window. Edward had parked by now, and was watching me with interest. After shimmying my way to the other side of the tree, I leapt to the ground and landed with a shoulder roll before getting to my feet in front of him.

"The door too boring?" he asked.

"Yeah," I answered. "You giving me a ride?"

He nodded. "I would feel more comfortable this way, and besides, another meeting where neither of us are planning on killing each other will be a good thing."

"Anything to help the cause," I said with an eye roll and got in the car.

I dozed off a bit on the way, Edward didn't try to break the silence, just softly played a local radio station. The next thing I realized, I was gently being shaken awake.

"We're here," he said.

"Hey loser!" Jake called, practically grinning from ear to ear.

"Hey teen wolf!" I called back.

He made a show of looking wounded.

"Play dead and I'll give you a belly rub!" I added as I climbed out of the car.

Edward choked back a laugh as Jake came over then stopped.

"Get over here, Meda, I can't get out of the line!" he complained.

"Bye," I said to Edward. "I'll try to get him to call when I'm ready to be back."

He nodded and I jogged over to Jake. "You still mad?" I asked.

"Nah," he said. 'I was wondering when you'd ever get around to the teen wolf reference, it was right in front of you this whole time."

"I'm sorry, your majesty."

"I will accept this apology," he said in a fake regal manner. "Your hair looks nice," he added.

"Thanks," I said. I'd left it loose, instead of in a braid, knot or ponytail like I usually did.

A short walk later, there was a car running. As we got closer, I could make out the words the people inside were saying.

"Look, there they are!"

"Finally, took you long enou- OW!"

"Be quiet!"

"Emily, hit him too! This is so unfair!"

I looked through the window to see Emily in the driver's seat with Sam by her side and Embry in the back seat. Emily was brandishing a rolled up newspaper in her hand and looking practically murderous. "This was to teach him manners," was all she said about the weapon in her hand. "How have you been?" she asked me as I got into the back seat.

"School's really been draining me dry," I said with a dry smile. They got the pun.

"She's awful," Embry whispered.

"I can hear you," I whispered back.

"Watch it, Embry, she's getting ready for another one," Jake warned just as the newspaper collided with his forearm again.

Sam watched this with pride in his eyes, then looked at the clock. "Should I drive to there, or will you be ready?" he asked.

"Shoot!" Emily said, throwing the entire newspaper at Embry before shifting gears and pressing on the gas and throwing all of us against our seats. She stopped the car in the same way, and I was thankful I had my seatbelt on, or else I most likely would've been thrown out the windshield. "And I need your help unloading the food!" she called to us as she parked the car and rushed to the trunk.

Jake just shrugged and prodded Embry out of his way. As soon as I made it to the trunk I had a huge reusable grocery bag thrust in my arms, and I saw that Jake and Sam were carrying a large cake each. Peeking inside the bag, I saw a platter of fancy looking sandwiches, the kind with the weird toothpicks in them. I sighed and caught up with Jake. The group of people waved at us when we arrived and I set the bag down to unload it.

"Em really outdid herself," Billy said, navigating his wheelchair along the bumpy rocks.

"Looks like she did," I said as I unwrapped the cling wrap around the platter and offered it to him. He took two and looked back at the people gathering on the driftwood and picnic chairs.

"You'd better grab a seat, looks like it's going to be a crowd," he advised.

"Based on what I had to lug over here, that's not surprising," I answered. Billy laughed and wheeled himself away.

The next hour or so passed like that, with introductions and food being eaten at an almost disgusting rate by the wolves. Quil had let out a whoop and gave me a high five, which made me crack up laughing. I'd missed them, I realized, and silently vowed to go over there more often. He introduced me to his grandfather, also named Quil, who'd nodded and smiled but said nothing to me.

"Don't worry, he does that a lot," Quil reassured me.

Sue Clearwater was also there. She asked me how Charlie was doing, and if he enjoyed the food she made for him. Reminding myself that I could possibly be talking to my future stepmother, I said he was doing great, and he absolutely loved her food. She introduced me to my possible future stepsiblings, Leah and Seth. I'd noticed that Leah had cut her hair since the last time I saw her, it was about chin length. It made her look severe but I didn't comment on it. She nodded at me absently but kept staring at the flames.

Jared introduced me to Kim, the woman he imprinted with. Or was it imprinted on? I didn't quite know. She smiled at me shyly, but didn't move out of Jared's arms. Sam and Emily were the same way on the other side of the fire. It was kind of sweet, disgusting, and yet I still felt kind of sad. Because that is what Percy and Annabeth should be doing- hanging out, getting ready for college, and getting very annoyed with me as I slung water at them if they were acting like a disgusting couple in a teen romance movie.

"You're not going to eat that, are you?" Paul asked Jake.

"How many have you eaten?" I asked Jake. I'd only finished my second hotdog, but he quite literally wolfed everything down.

"I lost count after nine," he said, sounding almost embarrassed if he wasn't so damn proud of himself.

"That's disgusting," I stated.

Paul took that moment of distraction to steal the hotdog and shove half of it in his mouth.

"That is also disgusting," I added.

"Get over it," Paul said.

I held my hands up in a gesture of surrender. I'd remembered how volatile his temper was, and I didn't want a repeat of the freeway incident, even if I could more than hold my own. I rolled my shoulders and rubbed my eyes, surprised a bit at how late it was getting.

"Don't you dare," Jake threatened. "You'll miss the best part."

"I already watched you eat two days' worth of food, what's next, eating the desserts?" I shot back and poked him in the neck.

"Har har," he replied. "It's the stories, silly. This is technically a council meeting. Quil, Kim, Seth, and Leah are all first timers too. But this is the first time they'll know its all true."

"What's it about?" I asked.

"It's the legend of the spirit warriors," Jake said, and turned to his father and the other elders and fell silent.

I noticed that Emily had suddenly produced a notebook and was ready to jot down notes like a student. Leah had closed her eyes and drew her eyebrows together.

"The Quileute have always been a small people, and we are small now, but we never have and never will disappear. This is because of the magic in our blood, but not the magic of shapeshifting, but the sprit warriors."

The fire popped, sending sparks in the air. Billy paused and looked around the circle to make sure we were all listening before continuing with the story.

"In the beginning, the tribe became ship builders and fishermen. But the tribe was small, and the harbor was rich, giving the people many fish. Others who coveted our land, and we were too small to hold it. A larger tribe moved against us, and we took to our ships to escape them.

"Kaheleha was not the first spirit warrior, but we do not remember the stories that came before his. We do not remember how the power had been used before this crisis. Kaheleha _was _the first Great Spirit Chief in our history, and used the magic to defend our land. He and his warriors left the ship in spirit. Their women watched over the bodies left behind, and the men took their spirits back to harbor.

"They could not touch the enemy tribe, but they had other ways. They could make a great screaming in the wind that terrified their foes. The stories also tell us that the animals could see the spirit warriors and understand them, and would do their bidding.

This invading tribe had packs of big dogs that they used to pull their sleds in the north. The spirit warriors turned the dogs against their masters and then brought bats up from the cliff caverns. Combined with the screaming in the wind, the dogs and bats won. The dogs ran wild when the spirit warriors released them. The Quileutes returned to their bodies victorious.

"The Hohs and the Makahs, made treaties with the Quileutes. They wanted nothing to do with our magic. We lived in peace with them, and still do today. Generations passed. Then came the last Spirit Chief, Taha Aki. He was known for his wisdom and for being a man of peace. The people lived well in his care.

"But there was one man, Utlapa, who was not content."

Maybe it was my imagination, but Jake tensed at the name, I was going to ask why but Billy had gone on.

"Utlapa was one of the strongest spirit warriors. He was a powerful man, but too ambitious. He thought the people should use their magic to expand their lands, to enslave the Hohs and the Makahs and build an empire.

"That never ends well," I muttered. Jake elbowed me, but snorted.

"Now, when the warriors were their spirit selves, they knew each other's innermost thoughts. Taha Aki saw what Utlapa dreamed, and was angry. Utlapa was commanded to leave the people, and never use his spirit self again. He was a strong man, but the warriors outnumbered him. He had no choice but to leave. He was furious, and swore to himself that he would get his revenge.

"Even in times of peace, the Spirit Chief had to protect his people. Often, he would go to a place in the mountains. He would leave his body behind and sweep down through the forests and along the coast as his spirit self, making sure no threat approached.

"One day when Taha Aki left to perform this duty, Utlapa followed. At first, he simply planned to kill the chief, but the other warriors would know it was his doing and destroy him. As he hid in the rocks and watched the chief prepare to leave his body, another plan occurred to him.

"Taha Aki left his body. Utlapa waited until he was sure the chief had traveled some distance with his spirit self. Taha Aki knew it the instant that Utlapa had joined him in the spirit world, and he also knew his plan. He raced back to his secret place, but wasn't fast enough. When he returned, his body was already gone. Utlapa's body lay abandoned, but Utlapa had not left an escape — he had cut his own body's throat with Taha Aki's hands.

"Taha Aki could only watch as Utlapa took his place as chief of the Quileutes. For a few weeks, Utlapa did nothing but make sure that everyone believed he was Taha Aki. Then the changes began —he forbade any warrior to enter the spirit world. He claimed that he'd had a vision of danger, but really he was afraid. He knew that Taha Aki would be waiting. Utlapa was also afraid to enter the spirit world himself, knowing Taha Aki would quickly claim his body. So he contented himself with ruling the tribe. He sought privileges that Taha Aki had never requested, refusing to work alongside his warriors, taking a young second and third wife, though Taha Aki's wife was still alive.

"Eventually, Taha Aki tried to kill his body to save the tribe. He brought a fierce wolf down from the mountains, but Utlapa hid behind his warriors. When the wolf killed a young man who was protecting the false chief, he ordered the wolf away.

"It was no easy thing to be a spirit warrior. It was frightening to be freed from one's body. This is why they only used their magic in times of need. Being bodiless was disorienting, uncomfortable, horrifying. Taha Aki had been away from his body for so long at this point that he was in agony. He was doomed, never to truly die.

"The great wolf followed Taha Aki's spirit through the woods. The wolf was very large for its kind, and beautiful. Taha Aki was jealous of the dumb animal. At least it had a body. Even life as an animal would be better than this horrible empty consciousness.

"And then Taha Aki had the idea that changed us all. He asked the great wolf to make room for him. The wolf complied. Taka Aki entered the wolf's body with relief and gratitude. It was not his human body, but it was better than the void of the spirit world.

"As one, the man and the wolf returned to the village on the harbor. The people ran in fear, shouting for the warriors. They ran to meet the wolf with their spears. Utlapa, of course, stayed safely hidden.

"Taha Aki did not attack his warriors. He retreated slowly from them, speaking with his eyes and trying to yelp the songs of his people. The warriors began to realize that the wolf was no ordinary animal, that there was a spirit influencing it. One older warrior, a man name Yut, decided to disobey the false chief's order and try to communicate with the wolf.

"As soon as Yut crossed to the spirit world, Taha Aki left the wolf to speak to him. Yut gathered the truth in an instant, and welcomed his true chief home.

"At this time, Utlapa came to see if the wolf had been defeated. When he saw Yut lying on the ground, surrounded by protective warriors, he realized what was happening. He drew his knife and raced forward to kill Yut before he could return to his body.

"'Traitor,' he screamed, and the warriors did not know what to do. The chief had forbidden spirit journeys, and it was the chief's decision how to punish those who disobeyed.

"Yut jumped back into his body, but Utlapa had his knife at his throat. Taha Aki's body was strong, and Yut was weak with age. Yut could not say one word to warn the others before Utlapa silenced him forever.

"Taha Aki watched as Yut's spirit slipped away to the final lands that were barred to Taha Aki for all Eternity. He entered the big wolf again, meaning to rip Utlapa's throat out. But, as he joined the wolf, the greatest magic happened.

"Taha Aki's anger was the anger of a man. The love he had for his people and the hatred he had for their oppressor were too vast for the wolf's body, too human. Before the eyes of the shocked warriors and Utlapa the wolf transformed into a man.

"The new man did not look like Taha Aki. He was the flesh interpretation of Taha Aki's spirit. The warriors recognized him at once, though, for they had flown with Taha Aki's spirit.

"Utlapa tried to run, but Taha Aki had the strength of the wolf in his new body. He caught the thief and crushed the spirit from him.

"The people rejoiced when they understood what had happened. Taha Aki quickly set everything right, the only change he kept in place was the end of the spirit travels. It was too dangerous now that the idea of stealing a life was there. The spirit warriors were no more.

"From that point on, Taha Aki was more than either wolf or man. They called him Taha Aki the Great Wolf, or Taha Aki the Spirit Man. He led the tribe for many, many years, for he did not age. When danger threatened, he would resume his wolf-self to fight or frighten the enemy. The people dwelt in peace. Taha Aki fathered many sons, and some of these found that, after they had reached the age of manhood, they, too, could transform into wolves.

"Some of the sons became warriors with Taha Aki, and they no longer aged. Others, who did not like the transformation, refused to join the pack of wolf-men. These began to age again, and the tribe discovered that the wolf-men could grow old like anyone else if they gave up their spirit wolves. Taha Aki had lived the span of three old men's lives. He had married a third wife after the deaths of the first two, and found in her his true spirit wife. He decided to give up his spirit wolf so that he would die when she did.

"That is not the end of the story. . . ."

At this point Billy had turned to Quil's grandfather, Quil. He shifted in his chair, groaning when his joints popped, and turned to look at those gathered around the fire. That was the story of the spirit warriors," Old Quil began in such a quiet voice I unconsciously leaned in to hear better. "This is the story of the third wife.

"Many years after Taha Aki gave up his spirit wolf, when he was an old man, trouble began in the north. Several young women of their tribe had disappeared, and they blamed it on the wolves they feared and mistrusted. The wolf-men could read each other's thoughts while in their wolf forms, and knew that none of their number was to blame. Taha Aki tried to pacify the Makah chief, but there was too much fear. Taha Aki did not want a war on his hands. He charged his oldest wolf-son, Taha Wi, with finding the true culprit before hostilities began.

"Taha Wi led the five other wolves in his pack on a search through the mountains, looking for any evidence they came across something they had never encountered before — a strange, sweet scent in the forest that burned their noses to the point of pain."

At this point Jake snorted loudly. I smacked him on the arm, and the sound was muffled by his shirt. He tried to poke me back but I dodged.

"Stop it," Embry hissed, shoving an arm between us.

"He started it," I muttered before settling down again.

"They did not know what creature would leave such a scent, but they followed it," Old Quil continued. Thankfully he didn't seem angry at Jake or me.

"They found faint traces of human scent and blood along the trail. They were sure this was the enemy they were searching for. The journey took them so far north that Taha Wi sent half the pack back to the harbor to report to Taha Aki. Taha Wi and his two brothers did not return. Taha Aki mourned for his sons and wished to avenge their death, but he was old. He went to the Makah chief in his mourning clothes and told him everything that had happened. The Makah chief believed his grief, and tensions ended between the tribes.

"A year later, two Makah maidens disappeared from their homes on the same night. The Makahs called on the Quileute wolves at once, who found the same sweet stink all through the Makah village. The wolves went on the hunt again.

"Only one came back. He was Yaha Uta, the oldest son of Taka Aki's third wife, and the youngest in the pack. He brought something with him that had never been seen in all the days of the Quileutes — a strange, cold, stony corpse that he carried in pieces. All who were of Taha Aki's blood could smell the piercing smell of the dead creature.

"Yaha Uta described what had happened: he and his brothers had found the creature, who looked like a man but was hard as a granite rock, with the two Makah daughters. One girl was already dead, bloodless on the ground. The other was in the creature's arms, his mouth at her throat. She may have been alive when they came upon the hideous scene, but the creature quickly snapped her neck and tossed her lifeless body to the ground when they approached. His white lips were covered in her blood and his eyes glowed red.

"Yaha Uta described the strength and speed of the creature. One of his brothers quickly became a victim when he underestimated that strength. Yaha Uta and his other brother were more wary. They worked together, coming at the creature from the sides, outmaneuvering it. They had to reach the very limits of their wolf strength and speed, something that had never been tested before. They found that only their teeth could damage it. They began to rip small pieces of the creature apart while it fought them.

"But the creature learned quickly, and soon was matching their maneuvers. It got its hands on Yaha Uta's brother. Yaha Uta found an opening on the creature's throat, and His teeth tore the head off the creature, but the hands continued to move. He ripped the creature into unrecognizable chunks, tearing pieces apart in an attempt to save his brother. He was too late but in the end, the creature was destroyed.

"Yaha Uta laid the reeking remains out to be examined by the elders. One severed hand lay beside a piece of the creature's granite arm. The two pieces touched when the elders poked them with sticks, and the hand reached out towards the arm piece, trying to reassemble itself.

"The elders set fire to the remains. A great cloud of smoke polluted the air. When there was nothing but ashes, they separated the ashes into many small bags and spread them far and wide. Taha Aki wore one bag around his neck, so he would be warned if the creature ever tried to put himself together again."

Quil paused. With slowness either for dramatic effect or because he was just really freaking old, he pulled a small leather bag from inside his shirt. Some people gasped.

"Holy shit," I said under my breath. That was impressive, especially after all this time. Jake let out a whistle and Embry's eyes got round as he stared at the bag.

"They called it The Cold One, the Blood Drinker, feared that it was not alone. They only had one wolf protector left, young Yaha Uta. They did not have long to wait. The creature had a mate who came seeking revenge.

"The stories say that the Cold Woman was the most beautiful thing human eyes had ever seen. She looked like the goddess of the dawn when she entered the village. The sun was shining and it glittered off her white skin and lit the golden hair that flowed down to her knees. Her face was magical in its beauty, her eyes black in her skin like snow.

"She asked something in a language no one had ever heard. The people did not know how to answer. There was none of Taha Aki's descendants among the witnesses but one small boy. He clung to his mother and screamed that the smell was hurting his nose. One of the elders heard the boy and realized what had come among them. He yelled for the people to run. She killed him first.

"There were twenty witnesses to the Cold Woman's approach. Two survived. They ran to Taha Aki, who sat in counsel with the other elders, his sons, and his third wife. Yaha Uta transformed as soon as he heard the news. He went to destroy the blood drinker. Taha Aki, his third wife, his sons, and his elders followed behind him.

"At first they could not find the creature, only the evidence of her attack. Bodies lay broken, strewn across the road where she'd appeared. Then they heard the screams and hurried to the harbor. Some of our ancestors had run to the ships for refuge. She swam after them like a shark, and broke the bow of their boat with her strength. When the ship sank, she caught those trying to swim away.

"Then she saw the great wolf on the shore. She swam so fast she was a blur and came to stand before Yaha Uta. She pointed at him with one white finger and asked another question.

"It was a close fight. She was not the warrior her mate had been. But Yaha Uta was alone and there was no one to distract her fury from him.

"When he lost, Taha Aki screamed and limped forward to shift into an ancient, white-muzzled wolf. The wolf was old, but this was Taha Aki the Spirit Man, and his rage made him strong. The fight began again.

"Taha Aki's third wife had just seen her son die before her. Now her husband fought, and she had no hope that he could win. She'd heard the story of Yaha Uta's first victory, and knew that his brother's diversion had saved him.

"The third wife grabbed a knife from the belt of one of the sons who stood beside her. They were all young, not yet men, and she knew they would die when their father failed.

"The third wife ran toward the Cold Woman with the dagger raised high. The Cold Woman had no fear of the weak human woman or the knife that would not even scratch her skin.

"And then the third wife did something the Cold Woman did not expect. She fell to her knees at the blood drinker's feet and plunged the knife into her own heart. Blood spurted through the third wife's fingers and splashed against the Cold Woman. The blood drinker could not resist the lure of the fresh blood leaving the third wife's body. Instinctively, she turned to the dying woman, and Taha Aki's teeth closed around her neck.

"That was not the end of the fight, but Taha Aki was not alone now. Watching their mother die, two young sons felt such rage that they sprang forth as their spirit wolves. With their father, they finished the creature.

"Taha Aki never rejoined the tribe. He never changed back to a man again. He lay for one day beside the body of the third wife, growling whenever anyone tried to touch her, and then he went into the forest and never returned.

"Trouble with the cold ones was rare from then on. The sons guarded the tribe until their sons were old enough to take their places. There were never more than three wolves at a time. It was enough. Occasionally a blood drinker would come through these lands, but they were taken by surprise. Sometimes a wolf would die, but never were they decimated again like that first time. They'd learned how to fight the cold ones, and they passed the knowledge on, wolf mind to wolf mind, spirit to spirit, father to son.

"Time passed, and the descendants of Taha Aki no longer became wolves when they reached manhood. Only if a cold one was near would the wolves return. The cold ones always came in ones and twos, and the pack stayed small. A bigger coven came, and your own great-grandfathers prepared to fight them off. But the leader spoke to Ephraim Black as if he were a man, and promised not to harm anyone. His yellow eyes gave some proof to his claim that they were not the same as others. The wolves were outnumbered; and there was no need for the cold ones to offer a treaty when they could have won the fight. Ephraim accepted. They've stayed true to their side, though their presence does tend to draw in others.

"And their numbers have forced a larger pack than the tribe has ever seen." Quil looked around at the people gathered before him, at all the wolves that the Cullens had brought on. He seemed almost sad, but kept going.

"Except, of course, in Taha Aki's time. And so the sons of our tribe again carry the burden and share the sacrifice their fathers endured before them."

"I think it's cool." Quil informed everyone.

"Me too!" Seth exclaimed.

Billy chuckled, and that seemed to break the spell. Emily put her notebook away and started clearing up the tables. Friends and relatives started talking in low voices. As I looked around Leah's eyes opened and landed on me. They were full of tears. I squinted, trying to get a better look, but she turned away to help Emily. Obviously, she didn't want to say anything, not to me anyway.

"What was her name?" I asked Billy.

He knew who I was talking about. "Nobody knows."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter nine, with shortened version of Jasper's story! **

_**The poll for book four is at the top of my author profile page. Please vote!**_

**happy reading!**

* * *

As I helped Emily and Leah load the empty food trays into the car, I heard loud laughter and howling. The three of us turned almost in sync, watching two wolves play-fighting with each other on the beach.

"Jake, quit being useless and help us out here!" I called when I saw he was only watching the show and possibly placing bets with his father

He trekked up to the truck and easily lifted the two tables and put them in the bed. "Is that all, your highness?" he asked

"Looks like it," I said. "Do me a favor and call Edward for me, okay?"

He groaned. "Why do I have to do everything around here?" he sighed.

I responded by throwing my phone at his head, and of course he caught it before it could collide with his thick scull. He rolled his eyes but started scrolling through my contacts and dialed. He walked away for a moment to talk, leaving me with Emily and Leah. As soon as we finished Leah quickly moved away from us and the others, kicking a random rock as she walked down the beach.

"He'll be here soon, we should get going," Jake said while jogging over. "I'll walk you, there's a shortcut through the woods."

"Watch yourself," Emily said mildly, preoccupied by the arrival of Sam. The immediately started smashing their faces together, causing Jake and I to make gagging noises.

"You watch yourself," I muttered and started attempting to catch up to Jake who had started fleeing the scene as soon as the disgustingly happy couple locked eyes.

Jake seemed to know his way back to the border line easily, and we chatted about school and our parents to pass the short trek from the beach to the main road. We only waited a few seconds before Edward's car pulled up slowly.

"I had a really nice time tonight," I said. "Thanks, we should do that again sometime."

"Absolutely. Besides, you're Em's favorite, she always makes you the good stuff," Jake replied.

"That doesn't mean you get to steal it from me," I reminded him as I climbed in the car. I waved as Edward pulled away.

"I take it you had fun tonight," Edward said.

"I did," I replied. Then I sighed. "Maybe the world isn't as cut and dry as I thought it was. Did you know they're spirit warriors? That is way too cool."

"And you're Poseidon's child, that's pretty 'cool' as well," he said.

"But they can read each other's minds," I said, flopping back in the seat with a yawn.

"You have your purpose, and so do they," he said. "Everything will work out in the end."

I yawned again. "Aren't you Mr. Philosophical," I grumbled.

"I do have a degree in philosophy," he reminded me. "It was bound to slip out sometime." He pulled up to my driveway after a few minutes and gently stopped the car. "Charlie's asleep, might not want to wake him up," he said.

"Thanks," I whispered and slid out.

When I fell asleep, there was a sense of relief, but it was short lived. When my eyes opened, the first things I felt were the biting cold, the thick fog, and an overwhelming sense of fear. Looking around, I saw that I was alone, and holding a bow which was odd. I rarely used a bow. Then suddenly, there was a pressure against the back of my right shoulder and when I turned around to see who or what it was, I got a solid punch to the face. It knocked me back a couple feet, but I automatically shifted into fight mode and shot an arrow at the general direction of my attacker.

Then suddenly all the sounds came into focus, like popping my ears the only time I was ever on an airplane. The noises around me, the sounds of metal on metal, the screams of wounded people. I couldn't see past the fog, but that didn't matter. Someone was coming after me. The knife appeared out of nowhere, and I managed to duck, grab the hand of the knife holder, and twist. Jumping up, I brought the arm in front of me and cracked the elbow by pushing it from the back. The knife fell and disappeared under the dense fog. There was a kick to the stomach which made me fall down, and I grabbed the snow that was on the ground, flinging it toward my attacker.

"Hand to hand, come on, Meda, you can do this," I muttered before picking myself up again. I moved the bow to my right hand and steeled myself for the next attack.

The arm came back, and I caught it, punching the face of someone with the bow, earning me a groan and a curse. Then everything sped up I didn't have time to think. Punches and kicks were exchanged quickly, few of them landing on me as my automatic fight reflexes kicked in.

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded.

There was only laughter.

My eyes snapped open in the dim morning light. I hadn't had a dream like that in weeks, why did it have to start now? Getting up, I stretched, then froze. Rushing to the mirror, I looked at my back.

There was a six inch cut in the right shoulder of my shirt.

"I have been visited by the great Apollo," Alice said ominously at lunch.

"That's Lord Apollo to you," I said. "And I don't know what he's been up to, but visits are at an all-time low."

"What?" she asked.

"Never mind. What did you want to say?" I asked before popping a strawberry in my mouth, hoping that'd distract her, and it did.

"I'm planning on throwing a graduation party," she announced.

"Yay?" I asked. It sounded garbled.

She rolled her eyes. "You only graduate once, Meda," she said.

I shrugged. She did have a point. And I was probably going to die soon so I might as well have a little fun.

"Edward said I have to tell you, and I had a vision of us actually surprising you…" she said.

"Now I'm curious," I said.

"You threw two people through a window and smacked another five with the serving trays," she said. "All while screeching at the top of your lungs."

"And you didn't let me do that? Alice, come on," I said, sounding disappointed.

She sighed dramatically. "I would say I'm sorry, but I think now that you'll enjoy yourself," she said, looking off into the distance at something past me.

I turned around and saw nothing. When I rolled my eyes and went back to eating my food, Edward found that funny enough to laugh.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully, even though I was slightly on edge because of the dream. The thing that bothered me most was the cold, the incredible and biting cold I remembered. But it was the beginning of June, and despite being the rainiest place on the continental United States, the weather was getting warmer.

Edward followed me back, planning on checking my room to see if the intruder had come back. F

When I got home there was a sticky note on the fridge, saying Charlie was going to be working late. He left a copy of the newspaper on the counter, and the headline stating that the murders in Seattle were on the rise, grabbed my attention.

Would you know anything about this? The note taped to the paper asked me.

I skimmed the article, then re-read it again. 39 homicides in three months. If this was really one person, that was just impressive, and not in a good way. The only other thing the police had to compare it to was a serial killer that was put away a few years ago, and his murders were over 21 years. None of the victims were connected in any way, not even by age or gender. The youngest was a 15 year old girl, the oldest was an 85 year old man.

The only similarities were in the bodies, burnt beyond recognition, and injuries such as crushed bones were present in all victims. There were no suspects. People were taken from crowds unnoticed, then turned up dead hours later. The strangest thing was the fact that in the first month, six people died, and now 22 have died in the past week.

Why would I know anything about that? I wondered. Monsters rarely targeted humans, and if all those people were half-bloods, that'd be impressive. We rarely made it to 20, much less 85. The thing that really stood out was the crushed bones, and the disappearances from crowds.

"Edward?" I called out, and sure enough, he was in the kitchen in a half second.

He looked at the paper I thrust into his hands. "This looks like more of your problem than mine," I pointed out.

He looked frustrated. "But Alice hasn't seen anything," he pointed out. "All these people dead, and there's nothing from her. It looks like a young vampire of some sort, but it should be easy to see something like that."

"That's odd, do you think her gift could fade?" I asked.

"It's doubtful, some of the older one's gifts have only intensified with time," he said. "We should go talk to jasper."

We got in the car, and thanks to Edward's really good (or atrocious) driving skills we were there within 10 minutes. Emmett greeted us at the door.

"I say we go take them out now," he said. "It'd be fun." He cocked his head. "She needs to calm down," he said, going back into the living room.

"It's going to happen sometime," Edward agreed. Suddenly he turned to look at Jasper. "That's it! It has to be."

"What?" Esme asked.

"You'd better explain, to everyone, especially Meda," Edward told Jasper.

Jasper stepped forward almost reluctantly. "You're confused," he told me.

"No, I know everything that's going on right now," I said.

He seemed to find that funny, because the corner of his mouth twitched up. "You didn't tell her," he said, looking at Edward.

"That's your choice to make," was all he said in reply.

Jasper nodded and pushed his sleeves up, revealing an intricate patter all over his arms. My eyes focused on the individual crescents that looked so much like some of my own.

"Bite marks?" I asked.

"That was quick," he said, sounding almost impressed.

"If there's one thing monsters always have, its jaws. Or claws. Spikes, too, they really like spikes…" I trailed off. "Anyway, you got bit, a lot, I'm assuming."

"That's one way of putting it," he said. "To understand, you have to know what it's like to always be thirsty. Some places are easier to live in than others. For example, large cities. A person can be taken here or there and it will be okay, because in the grand scheme of it all, they're very unimportant.

"Covens in the south are different than the ones up north. If it wasn't for the Volturi, we'd all be exposed."

"So you're saying don't go to cities in the south because I'll get my blood sucked out of me?" I asked.

"In a nutshell, yes," he said apologetically. "There's been constant war in the south, people fighting for control of the areas with the highest human population. The most effective tactic for this war was thought up by a vampire named Benito. He made himself an army of newborn vampires. We're strongest when we're young, but also volatile. One newborn can be controlled, ten cannot. They were dying from themselves as much as the enemy."

At this point Rosalie stood up and went upstairs. Jasper flicked his eyes at her, but didn't say anything, simply continued.

"Benito's enemies made armies of their own, and all hell broke loose. Historians say that the mortality rates were because of influenza, but it was war. The Volturi stepped in at that moment, took out Benito and every vampire in the south. Mexico was vampire-free for a time. It took them over a year to achieve that. Anyone found with newborns was killed immediately. But when they left, survivors came back and started everything again.

"When a newborn was made they were given more training and care. The war started again, only smaller," he said.

I concluded based on the look on his face that this was why he was changed. When I asked him, he nodded, still looking sad.

"I was 17 in 1861, but I wanted to fight in the war, so I lied and said I was twenty. My career was short, but people liked me and listened to what I had to say, that's probably why I was promoted so quickly," he explained. "The first battle of Galveston, I was placed in charge of evacuating the women and children from the city, and taking them to Houston. It was night by the time we arrived, and I only stayed to get a fresh horse and head back. About a mile out, there were three women on foot. I assumed they were left behind, and offered my help. But they were so beautiful. Even though they were obviously Mexican, their skin was so pale. I would've remembered a face like those, obviously they weren't in the group."

"Did they do it?" I asked.

"Yes. Maria, Nettie, and Lucy. I thought I was in love with Maria, though. She always seemed to favor me, more than anyone else she made. After a year, Nettie and Lucy turned on us, but we won against them. We always kept some newborns ready, just in case. I had to kill them if they got out of hand. After years of this, I befriended one named Peter. He survived three years, surprisingly. But when he fell in love with a newborn named Charlotte, and ran away, I didn't stop him. He came back, eventually, and the three of us stayed together. One day in Philadelphia, I was in a storm, and ducked into a bar for some shelter. Alice was there, expecting me, of course," he ended with a smile on his face.

The way he looked at Alice was gross yet sweet.

"She just popped in one day, wondering which room she could have," Edward supplied. "I was away hunting, and when I came back all my things were in the garbage."

"Your room was the nicest though," Alice said in her defense.

"But the point of this was, you think that someone's making an army, but here, in the north?" I asked. "What's the motive?"

"None, up here anyway. We can go out during the day, be as normal as possible. Sometimes there's a vampire passing through, and there'll be one or two deaths. But I've seen these numbers before. There's no other explanation," Jasper said. "We need to destroy them, and fast."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter ten, woo! now as I'm in the double digits, and really putting thought into book four (the prophecy of the seven) in Meda's POV, I would like to remind everyone that the poll is at the top of my author profile page. please take a moment to vote, it is short and gives me valuable information! **

**happy reading!**

* * *

"We can't take on an army," Esme said.

"I can teach you," Jasper promised. "But it will be difficult."

"I'll help," I added.

Everyone snapped their head around and looked at me. "Meda," Edward started, his hand on my elbow, "do you really think that's a good idea?"

"What are you talking about, of course it's a good idea," I said. "It's basically what I'm here for."

Their expressions went from surprised to confused in a split second. I sighed, readying myself to explain.

"We're here to protect the mortals from… stuff," I said. "And I don't know about you, but I totally classify a vampire army killing an obscene amount of humans as stuff. So… yeah. Besides, they're coming after you guys. What else are friends for if we can't kill each other's enemies?"

"Tanya's family is near, they could be going after them, not us," Esme reminded me.

"Oh yeah," I said dramatically. "Why didn't I think of that, that's totally the reason Alaska is going through a serial killer phase."

"But they're not coming after us…yet…" Alice said, her eyes closed and eyebrows drawn together.

"How do you know?" Jasper asked her.

She shook her head as if to clear it. "I just get these odd flickers. Someone's changing their mind, and quickly. I can't get a clear picture."

"Indecision," Jasper said.

"No," Edward butted in. "knowledge. They know how it works. Whoever is behind all this, they know how your gift works."

"Eh," I said, remembering how Rachel was before she became the oracle. That was not a gift.

"Who would know that?" Alice said.

Rosalie stepped forward. "Maybe it's someone else, from the South, who has to take care of this for forgiveness. It would explain why this isn't taken care of yet."

"They would never allow that, Aro's too much of a…control freak, for lack of a better term," Carlisle said.

There was a pause when everyone seemed to collect their thoughts. I took that as my chance to escape to the kitchen to see what I could eat. They did keep some cereal and pizza for me and I preheated the oven while looking over the directions for the pizza. After a few moments, Edward wandered in and prodded the pizza curiously.

"Hands off, it's mine," I said while cracking open a can of soda.

"But it looks so strange," he said. "I've never understood why humans, or half humans like pizza so much."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm from New York, sue me," I said.

"That may have something to do with it," he said while inspecting a piece of pepperoni. Abruptly he dropped it and groaned. "Damn Laurent. Damn him."

That was odd. "I thought that was already taken care of, but I'll see if I can call in a favor."

"No," he said. "Carlisle was talking to Tanya for help. Apparently, her sister Irina was romantically involved with Laurent."

'Gross," I said.

"Absolutely disgusting," he agreed with a nod. "Anyway, they said they will help, but only if they can take down the wolves."

"Don't you dare, Carlisle!" I called out.

"He won't," Edward assured me. "But it does leave us understaffed, in a way."

"Well," I said, poking him with a spatula, "I am the best kniveswoman Chiron said he's seen in a few centuries. So at least we've got that going for us."

"That is true," he said, just as the oven went off.

Alice and I were caught in a fierce battle. It raged on silently, while the rest of the student body unaware. The only people who could see it were not human.

"No," I repeated.

"Yes," Alice said. "I need it. I want it. It's going to happen."

It was then I decided to cut my losses. Getting in between Alice and a social event she could put on was a losing battle. That woman was terrifying when it came to picking out a cute shirt.

"Fine, you bitch," I said, and turned back to poking the glop that was on my tray.

She raised her hands in victory, so in retaliation I flicked a piece of the meat (was that really meat though?) from my tray at her shirt. she added, "I will be fixing your hair."

I sighed.

"Renee can't make it, Phil broke his leg," Alice said suddenly.

"How fortuitous," I said darkly.

Alice was right of course, and when I got home there was a couple messages from Renee, saying Phil did indeed break his leg. I wasn't too sad about her missing graduation, it's not like it was a big deal or anything. Well, it kind of was, but I didn't really care about it that much.

With a sigh, I looked at the pile of paper and books that were shoved to the edge of the table. I groaned, realizing that I had two finals tomorrow, math and history. I had to study, and study really hard. Luckily, for math we were allowed a page of notes, and I was mostly finished by the time Charlie got back.

"This is a sight for sore eyes," he joked while unloading his rifle.

"Talk to me when I'm human again," I groaned, rubbing my temples. "I need food," I said, suddenly looking at the clock. There was a delicious smell in the kitchen, and looking around, I saw the source.

"Food, my lady," Charlie said, unpacking the fried chicken and potato salad.

I reached over and took the cup of soup that was offered, taking a huge gulp. "Ah!" I said, swallowing around the burn in my mouth. I opened my mouth to fan my scalding tongue.

"There's this recent invention called a spoon, I think you'll find it useful," Charlie said, sliding one over.

I stared at him as I took another gulp straight from the cup, making sure to school my expression into a bored and uncaring mask.

"Why do I even bother?" he asked himself quietly.

"Because you and I both know that I'm the best daughter you've ever had in your life," I supplied.

"You're the only daughter I've ever had in my life," he said.

I shrugged. "Exactly."

Thankfully, that night I didn't have any strange dreams. Maybe it was because I was too tired, or whoever was sending me this weird stuff knew about my finals and decided to take pity on me. Either way, when I woke up well rested, I decided not to make a fuss about it, and focused instead on trying to pass my classes with decent grades.

"Fist bump me, bitch," I whispered as the math test was handed out.

"Did you just call me a bitch?" Alice whispered back.

"Yes, bitch, I did, now fist bump me," I said.

She did, and maybe that gave me a small, miniscule amount of good luck, because when I looked at the first problem, I knew how to solve it. The class schedules for finals were different than usual, so when it was time for lunch, there were only a few classes in the lunchroom. It was quiet, and I took a quick nap at the table, silently hoping Alice didn't take any blackmail worthy photos. She probably didn't, because she was a genuinely nice person, but also because she knew I was armed.

The shrill ringing of the bell woke me out of my half asleep state, and we all trudged to class, y intercepts and exponential functions still swimming in our minds. To my surprise, I was actually looking forward to the party Alice was throwing tomorrow night. It would take my mind off the stress of finals, and it would be nice to sit around and listening to the Cullen's vast collection of music and eating as much of their food as I could.

The invitations had already come in, through the mail, because Alice could never do things halfway, and they were on fancy gold and silver stationery, the edges decorated in a twisting design of lines and shapes. People were coming up to her and thanking her for them. She modestly said things like "it's no big deal" and "it's just something we threw together." Knowing Alice, she probably went overboard with the decorations. With our luck, someone would get tangled in the lights and kill themselves.

"One more day!" Alice chirped happily as I climbed into my car. Chemistry had gotten out early, due to the teacher noticing how tired and unfocused we all were, and she was waiting for Edward's class to get out as well.

I groaned in response. "I need to kill something, I'm so bored of school," I complained.

"I'm sure your chance will come sooner rather than later," Alice said, rubbing her temples.

"Headache?" I asked.

"Something like that," she replied. Turning around, she waved to Edward who was walking out to the parking lot with the rest of the other students.

"How did you do?" he asked me. "You said you hated the math class."

I stuck my thumb out toward Alice. "This bitch fist bumped me so I got all the good luck."

"This bitch made me fist bump her," Alice said, poking me in the shoulder.

Edward was looking at us with something like sadness on his face. "If I ever called her that I'd be so dead," he informed me.

"This bitch likes me more than she likes you!" I shouted, laughing when Alice feigned attacking me.

"What are you going to do this afternoon?" Edward asked me.

I sighed. "I'm going to surprise Jake, I haven't seen him in a while, and besides, the only tests I have tomorrow are chemistry and English, two of the easiest tests ever."

"Have fun," he said. "Please don't get yourself killed."

I smirked. "No promises. Besides, who said I won't be doing the killing in the first place?"

"Fair enough!" he called over the roar of the engine as I started the car.

The road to La Push was almost second nature by now. I was one of the few people traveling at this time of day so I could easily enjoy the scenery, smell the ocean air and relax. When I pulled up to Jake's house I was surprised to still see his VW still parked outside. I thought he'd be out doing something now that his classes were over. But Vicky was still out there, alive and up to who knows what so I supposed Sam would be making him do more work than he should.

When I knocked on the door I heard a crash before I saw Billy peeking around the door.

"Meda, come in, come in!" he said, backing away.

Walking in, I saw that the crash had come from the small end table that was lying on the floor.

"The wheels of this damn thing," Billy said. "Would you please pick it up, I'll straighten out the cloth."

I hoisted the table up and moved it back by the couch like it always was. The cloth covering it was only slightly twisted, so I straightened it quickly before Billy could get to it.

"Thank you so much, really. Damn these wheels," he said again.

"Maybe Jake could fix it up for you, or maybe you just need a new one," I said.

"He's busy, on patrol all day and night," Billy said. 'Kid only started his nap about two hours ago."

I sighed, realizing that my idea of Sam pushing everybody too hard was probably true. "I was going to surprise him, maybe I should be going?"

"Nah, you came all this way, I'm sure he'll be up soon. Last night he even got a full six hours," Billy said.

"Impressive," I answered.

He shook his head. "Right now, it is." Looking behind me, he visibly brightened up. "Jacob, Meda stopped by," he said.

I turned around and saw Jake, his hair sticking up at odd angles. "Morning," I said.

He grunted in response, punching the button of an ancient looking coffee machine. I laughed as he waited for the pot to brew. He eagerly poured the coffee into his mug and seemed to drain half of it in one gulp. "Good morning," he said.

"And an addict is born," I announced.

"Don't mention it, please. It gives me a headache," Billy grumbled as he made his way to his room.

"Sorry!" I called after him. He just waved in response and shut his door.

Jake was brewing yet another pot of coffee by the time I looked back at him.

"Whoa, you might want to slow down," I said. "That stuff can't be good for you."

He reluctantly turned the coffee maker off. "Fast metabolism, remember? Besides, it helps me wake up. I didn't know you were coming today," he added.

"I was planning on surprising you," I said. "I haven't been down here in a couple weeks and tomorrow is the official last day of my high school career."

He fist bumped me lightly. "Any plans to celebrate? Charlie invited Billy and me to your graduation, hope you don't mind."

That was something Charlie didn't mention. "I don't, and Alice is throwing a party for the senior class, everyone's invited."

"I wasn't," he said.

"Well now you are. Bring everyone, we can eat all the food together. It'll be a big bonding experience," I said. Based on the amount of food Alice had catered, she'd probably need a pack of hungry teenage werewolves to eat through it all.

He finished loading all the dishes into the dishwasher and kicked the door closed before starting it up. "Why don't we head out like normal?" he asked. I agreed, and we set off to our normal spot on the beach, the huge and ancient driftwood log that never changed or moved.


	11. Chapter 11

**Warning- there is some mild violence and some harsh language in this chapter.**

**thank you for reading! Again, if you have yet to vote in the poll for a book four in this series, it is at the top of my author profile page. I have also started another fanfiction titled "Exit, Pursued by a Zombie." It is another Twilight fanfiction, but this time it has themes from iZombie as well. Please check it out! **

**Thank you for reading, and Happy Holidays!**

* * *

During the walk, I noticed one thing about Jake. He looked like shit. But at the same time he looked happier than he did last year. I supposed it had something to do with being able to kill vampires, and not have it be a huge secret anymore, because his family and I understood. Also, the purpose of the wolves were to kill vampires, so going out like this, he must feel like he was fulfilling his ultimate purpose, right?

"You shouldn't drink so much coffee, Jake, it'll give you a heart attack," I said to break the silence.

"I think I love you," he said back.

"I'm sorry," I responded after a short pause.

He didn't look like he was particularly pleased with my response, and stopped suddenly, almost making me run into him. "Is that all?" he said.

I nodded. "Yeah."

There was another pause. "Do you not want to be friends anymore?" he asked.

I sighed. The thing with Edward was that we were great friends, and he knew that anything else was off the table, for the foreseeable future, at least. Jake, not knowing my real upbringing and heritage, might not be so understanding. Then again, I didn't really care if he understood, he just needed to accept what I said.

"Jake, you're one of my best friends, nothing can change that," I said. "So I'd love to be your friend."

He looked at me with an unreadable expression. "It's him, isn't it?"

I knew he meant Edward but decided to pretend we were talking about someone else to annoy him. "Yes, Jacob, the fact that my brother is missing is important, but please don't flatter yourself into thinking that's the only reason I'm not throwing myself at you right now." I was getting a bit annoyed, and raised my voice a bit.

"You know I mean Edward. Are you two together or what?" he sounded a bit angry now, and I could more than match that.

"No, Jake, we're not. And I don't see why you need to know that because it's not like you-" I was cut off abruptly.

By his mouth. He was kissing me, or at least attempting to. And he was doing so without my permission. My hands curled into fists as anger rose in me. The water responded, churning in more violent waves. I kept perfectly still, and after a few moments Jacob seemed to realize that I hadn't moved a millimeter.

"Meda?" he asked.

"Are you finished?" I asked quietly. That was about the time he realized that he made a huge mistake.

"Yeah, and-" he started but I didn't let him finish.

I grabbed his right hand with my right hand and brought it down to my hip, slamming my left forearm into his elbow so it cracked loudly. He didn't have much time to make any noise or move to defend himself before I brought my knee up underneath his ribs, knocking the air out of him. With a solid punch to the face, I finished, thinking that the cracking of his nose and a bone in his face meant I did as good a job as any.

He collapsed to the ground, groaning. We weren't too far away from his house, so I jogged up to the door and let myself in. Billy was snoozing in his chair but woke up when I moved toward the phone.

"Meda? What happened? There's blood on your shirt!" he said.

I punched in Carlisle's number and heard the dial tone before I answered. "What happened was I put your son's ass on a platter and served it to him," I snapped. He tried to wheel himself to the door but ended up slamming into the bookshelf instead.

"Carlisle Cullen," Carlisle said.

"Get down to the border line, don't bother driving, just run over here. I kicked Jake's ass and he needs medical help," I said.

"What are you-" he started.

"Just do it!" I snapped and hung up. "Stay here Billy, I'll take care of Jacob."

I ignored his protests as I stalked my way over to Jake, still on the ground and getting his breath back. I hauled him up by his shirt and frog marched him to the truck, throwing him in the passenger seat without a word. I drove angrily to the border line, unsurprised that Carlisle and Esme were already there.

I hauled Jake out of the car and walked him over to Carlisle, who was already looking at the arm.

"I don't want a leech working on me," Jake started.

"Shut the hell up or I will break your other arm!" I said, surprising everyone. "And that is not a threat, that is a promise."

Everyone looked at me like I was a bomb about to explode. I supposed that in a way, I was. My fingers were itching toward my knife, so I walked back into my truck and slammed the door closed. Carlisle worked quickly, splinting the arm and fixing his nose. They both seemed to find the odor of the other person offensive, and their noses were constantly wrinkled. When they finished up Jake walked back to the car, looking wary.

"Can I get a ride?" he asked.

"No," I replied. "Unless you want me to get to your ribs." I started the car, and moved down the road. Carlisle and Esme could probably tell I wasn't in the mood for a chat and had already left. I saw Jacob throw his arm up in my rearview mirror.

By the time I got home Charlie was back, eating dinner. He held a hand up and swallowed, washing it down with some beer, and walked over to the phone. He sorted through the messages, then played the most recent one.

"Charlie, please, talk to Meda, she said something about 'handing Jacob's ass to him' then the next thing I know he's coming home with a splint and blood all over his face. I don't know where she went, and Jake's not talking to me. Please talk to her."

The message cut off with a shrill beep.

"What did you do?" Charlie asked me.

I rolled my eyes. "Jake kissed me, I broke his arm, kneed him in the stomach, and then punched him in the face."

Charlie seemed confused. "He kissed you?"

"Without my permission," I clarified.

"Oh," he said. "Well in that case, did you pepper spray him?"

That was weird. "I don't have pepper spray."

"I put some in your truck when you first came here. It's in your glove compartment."

"Oh, then if anyone messes with me, I'll finish off with the spray then," I said with a smile.

"Let's get some food in you," he said.

And that was that. Charlie called Billy back and explained to him calmly that if Jacob didn't want his ass handed to him, he shouldn't have kissed me without my permission. Billy seemed to understand that, and the conversation ended with him inviting Charlie over to fish and watch some sort of sporting event.

Right as I was ready to get in bed there was a soft pattering of sorts against my window. I extended my knives and drew back the curtain, peeking around the corner to see…Edward. In the tree.

I smirked as I opened the window and waved him in. he unfolded himself and was in my room in an instant. We just looked at each other for a moment before he grinned.

"I hear you broke Jacob's arm," he said.

"Don't forget his nose," I reminded him, retracting my blades and closing the window.

"Why? I know he's your friend, what made you do something like that?"

It was a fair question, one part of me was hoping he'd never ask, because he might not like the answer.

"Apparently friendship isn't good enough for him," I said. When he didn't say anything, I added "he kissed me. Without my permission."

"Ah," he said in understanding, nodding. There was another pause before he asked "but why break his arm? Isn't the proper protocol a slap or something along those lines?"

I snorted loudly. "I was trained to kill, not slap. Half of me wishes I did slap him, but a small bit of me wishes I broke his neck. It's not like I don't know how."

I met his eyes then, eyes full of questions.

"It sounds personal," he said.

"It is," was all I replied with.

The silence was thick before he said anything. "You don't owe me anything," he said.

"I think I might," I said. "But I'll give you the shortened version. I was eight when my foster sister didn't come down to help me with homework like she promised. I went up to her room and found the oldest foster boy assaulting her. She had broken ribs and a concussion by the time I got there, and it was clear he wasn't finished. So I beat him to a pulp, like I was trained to do. He called the state, probably ashamed he was beaten by a girl ten years younger than him, and within the next hour he and I were two counties away from each other. And still, after all this time, I sometimes wonder if I was too late, or just in time. What if I walked in five minutes later?" I asked. "What if a girl Jacob did that to couldn't fight back, if she could only stand there and wish she was somewhere else?"

I didn't see him reach over and cover my hand with his. Startled, I faced him, ready to pull away. "I understand," he said. "And I'm very thankful you…prevented further harm to your foster sister. You're a good person, Meda, really. Don't think you aren't."

It was strange, hearing that. It was like after all this time, those were exactly the words I wanted to hear.

"Thank you," I said. I waited a few moments before saying "I'm going to go to sleep now."

He stood up quickly and headed back to the window. "Goodnight," he said softly before leaping out of it. I could make out a blur of movement as he ran into the woods.

"Show off," I muttered before securing the window.

The next morning I was surprised by Alice coming through my window with what seemed like fifteen giant bags of clothing. She made me promise not to open any before tonight, as it was what she wanted me to wear for graduation and the party from hell she was planning on throwing later. With a quick congratulations for physically harming Jacob for his actions, she went through the window as I was frantically brushing my teeth and rushing out the door. To my surprise, she did not leave me alone, instead as I ran out the door I almost tripped over the Volvo, and was quickly waved inside by Alice and Edward, who sped us to school.

The English test was a breeze, our teacher, Mrs. Garcia, probably never wanted to see us again for the rest of her life so she made the questions as easy as possible. Chemistry was another matter, and I was sadly one of the last ones done. Like the day before, we were let out early and many were cheering. I was searching for my truck for a few moments before I remembered I rode with Alice and Edward. I took a sharp turn and waited for a few seconds before climbing up on the roof of the car, letting my feet dangle over the passenger door. Within a minute of climbing up, Alice appeared, looking very displeased.

"I just washed and waxed the car, Meda, if you get dirt on it I swear I will end you," she said primly.

"You live in the rainiest city in the United States, dirt is the least of your worries," I shot back.

"Are we going to head out or are you just going to stay there?" Edward asked from behind me.

"Head out?" I asked.

"Didn't Alice say anything?" we both turned to glare at Alice.

"I hope you know I have over one hundred different bottles of nail polish and I bought twenty pairs of shoes for you. This is going to take some time."

With those words, I groaned and flopped back onto the roof, my head hitting the metal with a clang. I shot up, hoping there was no dents. Thankfully I got off easy, and hopped down and into the backseat before I could do any more damage. Edward dropped us off at my house before taking off, leaving me to Alice, who was chattering about colors and sequins and using words in French and Italian. But it was Alice, and there's no stopping her, was there?


	12. Chapter 12

**Happy New Year everyone! I can't belive its been almost 2 years since Andromeda's Story was published, thank you so much for sticking with her through her adventures! Remember, the poll for book four is on my author profile page. Thank you for reading!**

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Thankfully, when graduation came, I was all decked out in really fancy clothes, thanks to Alice and her amazing fashion sense. I wasn't usually into this sort of stuff, but it was graduation after all. Pictures would be taken, and I was very sure that if I looked back on this day a year from now, I'd be very disappointed at myself if I wore sweats.

But, sadly, I couldn't find my lucky bracelet. Charlie had given it to me when I was twelve, and I thought it would be nice to wear it.

"I want to punch that vampire thief in the guts," I muttered under my breath.

"Sounds promising," a voice said.

Before I could think, I threw a small dagger at the voice, but thankfully Alice had already jumped out of the way. She shot me a glare, but came in through the window anyway.

"Rude," she said.

"So were you," I shot back, wiggling the blade out of the drywall.

"If you chip that manicure, so help me God," she started.

I flashed her my perfect glittery copper nails before stuffing the blade in my shoe. "It's all good, mom," I said. "I assume you're here to fix this alien on my head?" The day before she gushed to me about this overnight hair curling technique, and there were now four bandanas sticking out of my head, my hair wrapped between them. Honestly, I should have gotten an award for my patience.

"Obviously," she said, and sat me down on my desk chair before undoing the elastics at the ends of my hair. "Now what was it about this vampire thief?"

I sighed. "I was looking for a bracelet, Charlie gave it to me years ago. I wore it a lot, and it just disappeared!"

"Well," Alice said. "Your hair will make you forget about all that thievery. And I just need to figure out Seattle, then I'm all good." Her voice turned progressively snippier as she ended the sentence.

For some reason, that was when it clicked. We were treating the thief and what was happening in Seattle as two separate things. But what if they weren't?

"Alice," I said.

"What?" she asked while combing her fingers through the top of my head. "Glorious, just like I imagined."

"What would you say if I had a theory that the thief in my room and the vampires in Seattle are the same?" I asked.

Her fingers abruptly stopped. "Why would you say that?" she demanded.

I turned around to face her. "You said someone was using holes in your vision to come into my room. And you can't exactly see what's going on in Seattle. How could two separate people know so much about the loopholes in your visions? It makes no sense. So, using probability, it's the same person."

She froze in place for a few minutes. I took that time to look in the mirror. Of course, my hair was amazing, then again, Alice would settle for nothing less. I was applying my second coat of mascara when she walked into the bathroom.

"You're right. Of course you are. When you put it like that… but that means, whoever stole your scent, it wasn't for them. It was to help others find you," she said, horrified.

I shrugged and reapplied some blush. "I've dealt with worse. Besides, now you know they're not really coming after you, they're coming after me."

"Like that's not bad?" she screeched.

I giggled. "They'll never know what hit them! Alright, we're late. Let me grab my gown and cap. Shoo! Don't let Charlie see you!"

She looked at me for a moment like I was some alien, probably wondering how I could be so glib about a vampire army probably wanting to kill me, but did leave.

"Andromeda! Get down here right now!" Charlie yelled up the stairs.

I rolled my eyes and threw my cap at him like a Frisbee. He caught it, and I jumped over the handrail instead of taking the stairs.

"Was that really necessary?" he huffed.

"Yes, father, it was," I said seriously.

We were quite silent on the drive. Charlie seemed to be debating saying something, but held out until we pulled up to the packed parking lot.

"You do know Billy and Jacob will be here, right?" he said eventually.

"Yeah, I do. I promise I won't go full demigod on Jake. Unless he provokes me," I added.

Charlie seemed to accept that. He insisted on opening the door for me, something I would have otherwise refused, but I let him do it. After all, graduation is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"Meda!" Alice called.

I turned around to see the entire Cullen and Hale family walking toward the gym. Walking into the entrance was pandemonium, and Charlie and the non-graduating Cullen's were ushered off to the seating, while we were all lined up alphabetically.

Eric gave his speech, something standard about the beginning of our lives, looking back on how far we came, the importance of family, and more. I contented myself playing candy crush on Alice's phone. Apps were pretty safe, and it was highly unlikely that a monster would find me through someone else's phone.

Then the music was starting and Principal Greene was calling out names and handing out folders. Ms. Cope was fumbling, probably because Mr. Greene was going at a rate of about two students a second. When I got up on stage there was a loud cheer from the back, and I saw Jacob and Charlie leap to their feet. I waved, got my folder, and walked off stage.

And that was it.

"Congratulations to this graduating class!' Mr. Greene announced.

We all cheered and threw our hats in the air. Families then started to crowd together, and I pushed my way to Charlie, who gave me a huge hug.

"Good job, honey," he said emotionally.

"Yeah, good job Meda!" Jacob said.

I just stared at him, daring him to say another word. Charlie and Billy cleared their throats and looked away while I glared at Jacob. After a few moments of that, Charlie broke the silence by announcing that we were going to go to the Grill for dinner. Billy announced that he and Jacob had to take off, something about Billy leaving his medication at home.

On the way out into the parking lot, I saw the Cullen family around Edward, but Alice was missing. Probably to try and figure out a plan for Seattle, or maybe she had to run to the house to get ready for the party. She always went overboard, although with her super speed, I had an idea that the decorations were already in place.

The Grill was crowded, as it was the closest thing to a formal restaurant Forks had, and many people had come from graduation. I ordered a double cheeseburger with extra fries, and Charlie took the prime rib. He was talking over the table to someone's parents, and it seemed like everyone was doing that, making the room very noisy.

After I practically inhaled my cheeseburger, I got a box of nachos for the road and walked over to the cruiser to wait for Charlie while he paid. There was a movement in the shadows, but I relaxed after I saw it was Edward.

"Nacho?" I offered.

He snorted and refused. "I'm sure you're wondering why I called you here today," he started off.

"You would be right," I said.

"And its Alice," he said.

"Alice?"

"Yes, she's been acting strange since she got back from your house. She did a great job, by the way," he said, gesturing to my outfit, a sparkly silver top and black jeans.

"Oh, that's because I made a shot in the dark and figured out that the army in Seattle and the thief in my room were the same thing. It's because of the miniscule likelihood that two different people know about the loopholes in Alice's vision. Personally, I think its Vicky. She does hate me after all," I said, finishing off with a big bite into the glorious cheesy goodness.

Edward looked floored.

"Close your mouth, you'll catch flies," I said.

"They're coming after you?" he said incredulously.

"Hell yeah they are! And it's going to be awesome. I think. Maybe. Well, who knows?" I asked.

"And you're not scared?" he said. "How could she keep this from me?"

I sighed, and closed the box, hearing Charlie's voice. "I'll talk to you at the party, okay? Now shoo!"

He nodded in understanding, the zipped off without a moment's notice. The car's lights flashed, and the doors unlocked. I climbed in, and a few moments later Charlie did too.

"Can I have a bite?" he asked, inching his fingers toward the disappearing box of nachos.

I sighed and handed it over.

"Now, how do we get to the house?" he asked.

I gave him the directions while he threatened to shut it down if it got too wild. But with Carlisle and Esme there it seemed very unlikely. When we turned the corner, I saw that Alice had wrapped the trees with twinkly lights, and every thirty feet or so, another pair of trees were lit up, guiding everyone to the house. Alice had insisted that I be there a bit earlier so Charlie didn't have to fight any traffic to drop me off.

"Don't do drugs!" he called out after me.

"No promises!" I shouted back.

Rosalie greeted me with a smile, and a "congratulations," but didn't offer much else. Alice was deciding between what looked like a pile of fifty CD's and a laptop, so I just took a moment to look around the house.

It looked like the inside of a ritzy nightclub that only appeared on TV. There was a new and enormous speaker system, and there were red and purple lights throwing designs everywhere.

"How many people are coming?" I asked.

"Everyone," Emmett said behind me. "They want to see the house of the mysterious Cullen family."

"Fun," I said blandly, reaching for a sandwich.

"Haven't you eaten enough today?" Emmett asked me. Of course it was a joke but I turned around and glared at him.

"Haven't you talked enough today?" I snapped back.

"Burn!" Rosalie said with a grin, and we high fived.

"Women, I swear to god," Emmett sighed, and wandered off.

Edward dragged me upstairs for a moment, and I listened to Carlisle and Jasper's ideas of how to stop he army. It appeared as though they couldn't reach any other friends other than the unwilling dickheads in Alaska. But soon the doorbell was ringing nonstop and people filtered inside, putting an end to the conversation.

Lauren, the beady eyed freak, scanned the room meticulously, and looked at me for too long. Part of me wanted to slap her, but Alice would be so disappointed, so I ate two of the little sandwiches instead. The music was perfect, and pretty soon the room was crowded and full, with many people dancing, or at least trying to.

Edward and I spent a half hour playing the "if I were human" game. As the name suggests, we were making suggestions on the other's life, if either of us had been human. So far, I was a world famous marine biologist and part time surfer and food critic, while Edward was an astronaut who bred goats and made cheese. Of course, all of this was done in space. We didn't care much about logistics.

Out of nowhere, Alice appeared, tugging on Edward's arm. His eyes widened as he read her mind and he motioned for me to stay where I was.

"Meda?" Alice called back. "Take care of the wolf!"

That was all before they went upstairs. So out of curiosity and boredom, I opened the front door to find Jacob, his arm and face healed, with Embry and Quill, waiting to come inside.


	13. Chapter 13

**First off, thank you for making it this far. I know it has been an inexcusably long time since the last update. I was working more than full time for about a year at a physically and emotionally demanding job. Now, I am currently unemployed but a full time nursing student. It was very difficult to make it in the nursing program, and I hope to one day earn a graduate degree. that being said, thank you for your support and kindness. Bit by bit, this story is being written. 3**

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I stared at them all, and they stared back. "Why are you here?" I eventually asked.

"You invited me!" Jake reminded me.

"Me breaking some of your bones was an uninvitation," I said.

He shrugged and started to make his way inside, wrinkling his nose as he went.

"How could you even do that?" Embry asked. "Break his bones, I mean."

"I've had training," I said, and left it at that.

They spent a few moments looking at the dancing people before Jake turned back and announced that he had brought me a gift. It was a plastic rectangular box. Without a word, I grabbed the box, and shoved it in the trash can. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared them down.

"So you're here because you need to talk to Carlisle about something?" I asked.

"Nope," Quil squeaked, staring at the box in the trash can.

"They why are you here?" I asked again.

They looked vaguely nervous.

"Look," Quil said. "We know something's going on, we just don't know what."

"And you're here to find out what exactly is going on," I sighed. "Let's move this into the kitchen, okay?"

I herded them into the kitchen while keeping an eye out for Alice. They gathered in there, taking up a lot of space, both with their physical bodies and the awkward silence that followed them.

"Look Meda, we know something's up. Victoria hasn't been spotted for the past week or so. No scent, no tracks, nothing. It's like she's disappeared. Last time we picked it up, she was headed west. Since then, nothing," Quil said.

I looked over his shoulder for Alice. She saw something, I knew it.

"Why are you so distracted?" Jacob demanded. "What's so important you're ignoring all of us?"

"Alice saw something, I don't know what," I said with a shrug. I turned to pour myself a glass of water.

"Don't lie, Meda, of course you know what she saw," Jacob said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I straightened my back. "Get your hand off me," I said.

"Jake," Embry said.

I smashed the glass on the edge of the sink, leaving me with a jagged edge. I spun around, bringing it millimeters from Jacob's neck.

"Back. Off," I warned.

He took a step back. So apparently he did turn out to have a sense of self preservation. Good for him.

"Meda," Alice said, appearing in the doorway with a terrified expression on her face. "The decision was made," she said.

"Are we going to Seattle?" I asked. Her silence spoke volumes. I sighed. "So they're coming here."

"One carried your shirt," she supplied, very unhelpfully. I rolled my eyes.

The wolf posse looked very confused. Suddenly Jasper was behind Alice.

"We cannot allow them to come this far, we have to stop them before they get to town," he said forcefully.

"I agree," I said. "There's a potential for mortals to be hurt if they come into town."

"Who is they?" Jacob demanded.

Alice looked at him as though she had forgotten his presence. "Our kind," she said eventually. "Many of them. And they're coming for Meda."

"Is it too many for you?" Jacob asked.

"It will be an even fight," Jasper said coolly.

"I doubt it," Jacob said.

He and Alice stared at each other before she grinned a vicious, feral grin. "Everything just disappeared, of course," she told everyone else. "But I'll take it."

"Just as long as you're a team player," Jacob said, "everything will be fine."

It took a few moments for me to catch up, but when I did, everything made sense.

"How many?" Quil asked.

"It depends, twenty one now, it may go up or down," Alice informed them.

"Why?" Quil persisted.

"Now isn't the time or the place," Alice started.

"And we were having a strategic meeting later tonight, you should come," Jasper finished. He paused and looked at the boys. "This will be odd, I never imagined working together."

"Think of it as a fantastic team building exercise," I said. Werewolves, vampires, demigods, oh my, I thought to myself.

"What time?" Jacob asked. "I need to tell Sam."

Jasper pondered this for a moment. "Three? Ten miles north of the Hoh Forest ranger station. Come from the west, follow our scent."

Jake, Embry, and Quil looked positively thrilled about following the scent but nodded anyway. "We'll be there," Embry said, turning to leave.

"See ya!" I called out after them.

"Will you tell them now?" Alice asked me. The party was going in full swing, the thudding bass sounding very far away.

I nodded. "I guess I'll have to."

Edward drove me back to my house in silence. I could see that Jacob's proposal had lifted the cloud of stress and worry that surrounded the Cullen's. Emmett was laughing, and Carlisle and Esme seemed lighter. Maybe the extra set of paws would go a long way.

"I'm going with you tonight-this morning, I mean," I told Edward when we pulled up to the driveway.

"You're going to tell him, aren't you?" he asked.

I paused, trying to figure out the wording. "It would be wrong not to say anything, then come out with my knives suddenly and expect him not to get distracted," I said. "You need to trust who you fight with. Your teammates are the ones that have your back. If you can't trust someone not to withhold information, you can't trust them with your life."

"I can't argue with that logic," Edward replied.

"I'll get some sleep, be here at 2:30 or so," I said while exiting the car.

"See you soon," he said before speeding off.

When I let myself in the first thing I saw was Charlie sleeping on the tiny couch, snoring like a chainsaw. When I couldn't wake him, I sighed, knelt down, and slung him over my back before climbing the stairs and putting him on his bed. He still didn't wake up, which was pretty impressive. But, I didn't need to see him in pain tomorrow from the strain on his back.

I changed into baggy sweatpants and a camp shirt before trying to get some sleep. It seemed like moments later I was being shaken awake by Edward.

"Ugh," I moaned, waking up eventually.

"You can always stay back," he said too cheerfully.

"Not a chance," I said, suddenly wideawake.

He snickered but allowed me to climb on his back before jumping out my window. The distance passed quickly, and before I knew it he stopped so I could get off his back. We walked to the clearing ahead, Emmett's booming laugh scaring the birds. I realized that this is the place where they played baseball, a year ago. I allowed myself to remember Percy and me, running from James. Keeping our secret.

"Meda, you're here!" Esme said with a smile.

"Hi Esme," I said.

"Are you practicing too?" Emmett asked.

"It'd have to be without weapons, unless you like the shish kabob look," I said and left it at that.

Rosalie thought that was hilarious, and Emmett looked vaguely offended. "I'd never let you get the drop on me," he said.

"They'll be here in a minute," Edward said suddenly, not giving me time to respond to Emmett's jab. "But not in their human forms. I'll be translating."

I briefly thought about ways I could delicately say that I'm a demigod, but couldn't think of the words. Oh well, I'm from New York, they'll just have to deal with my bluntness.

"Oh my," Edward said with a chuckle. "They've been holding out on us."

Everyone looked at him quizzically, but he just told us to wait and see for ourselves.

"Damn," Emmett said.

I saw them as shadows first, then they moved into the clearing. There were ten. Ten wolves. The pack had grown from six to ten in a matter of weeks.

"Welcome," Carlisle said courteously.

"Thank you," Edward replied on their behalf. "We will observe and listen, but our self-control will not allow more."

"We understand," Carlisle replied. "My son Jasper has experience in these sorts of things, but first, Meda has something to say."

When I stepped forward, the wolves moved forward as well, allowing me to make out their features some more. I took a deep breath.

"I don't know how exactly to phrase this so here goes," I started. "The Greek gods are not myths, they are real. Poseidon, god of the sea, earth shaker, and the father of horses, is Percy and my father. Any questions?"

The wolves looked between each other. Some snorted laughter, some tensed, possibly thinking that this was a trap of some sort.

There was a thick silence before Edward spoke. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked.

"I'm Poseidon's daughter," I said. "The Greek gods are real. I thought I made that very clear."

Edward moved toward me. "They all think you're insane." He said quietly.

I sighed. "All right dickheads, here goes."

I put my hands out in front of me, reaching to the river about a mile away. I called it toward me.

"Meda?" Edward warned while putting a hand on my elbow. "They think we're playing a trick on them, and they're really not happy."

"Well have some patience!" I snapped at the wolf pack.

They were suddenly howls and yelps of alarm from the pack. Some crouched down defensively, others bared their teeth at me and the Cullens. They probably heard the water. When it was only yards away from the furthest wolf, I split the path of the massive tidal wave, so it was crashing around us, a wall of water, leaving everyone perfectly dry.

I looked Sam in the eye. I knew that he was the leader, so I needed to convince him before the others could possibly believe me. The wolf stared back, eyes wide in alarm. I concentrated so there was no longer a wall of water around us, now all the water was concentrated above the treetops. The wolves and vampires were both staring at me and the mass of water in the sky.

"Bath time, Jake!" I yelled before dropping the water. Everyone was drenched, except for me of course. "Still think I'm crazy?" I asked them after a few moments had passed.

"My hair, Andromeda!" Rosalie moaned in despair.

I held my hand up and willed the water off her.

"Thank you," she said primly.

"You're welcome," I said in the same tone.

"So why did you do this, can you defeat vampires with the water show?" Edward asked me.

"Excuse you," I told the wolves. "But I am a highly-trained knives woman, and celestial bronze, the material my blades are made from, are very dangerous to vampires. I have killed a vampire before, and currently, because I have swam in the river Styx to save the entire western world, I am 98% indestructible."

"What blades? And what river?" Edward asked.

I pushed the buttons on my pencils and everyone, vampires and wolves, took a step back. "These blades. The river is a story for another time. But the show's over on my end. Jasper will take it from here." While walking back toward the rest of the family, jasper was grinning and held out his hand for a high-five. When I slammed my hand against his there was a loud clang that startled everyone.

They probably had more questions, but knew they couldn't afford to waste any more time. Jasper stepped forward. "The newborns will come across the mountains in four days. Alice will help us intercept their path. They are very new to this way of life, and have no skill, only brute strength. With both our forces combined, it shouldn't be difficult to wipe them out."

Jasper paused before starting again, to make sure he was being listened to very carefully. "Do not, under any circumstances let them get their arms around you. and do not go for the obvious kill. Emmett?"

Emmett moved so he was facing Jasper. "Emmett is the best example of a newborn attack, as he relies mostly on his strength. Try and catch me," jasper explained.

They were suddenly blurs, moving around the clearing, snarling the whole time. suddenly, Emmett froze, jasper behind him, hands around his throat.

Jasper demonstrated again, this time on Alice, then on Edward. Alice won her round, Edward couldn't win or lose, so it was called a draw. Everyone took another turn, the wolves watching. After plenty of time had passed jasper called me forward.

"I'm just curious," was all he said. I moved forward to where he motioned. "I'll move at a slower pace to even us out," was all he got in before I quickly punched him in the face, the noise echoing throughout the clearing. Everyone found this particularly amusing, but stifled their laughter.

"Okay, that's all for tonight," he said after a brief pause. He turned around to say goodnight to the wolves and I retracted one of my knives and poked his jacket.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Stabby stabby," I said, poking him again. "I have an uncontrollable thirst for vengeance. Also, I'm tired and possibly going nuts."

Jasper actually grinned for once, before turning around and giving instructions for the next meeting. When I turned around and walked toward Edward so he could take me back home, there was a shift in movement among the wolves. Jacob was following me, so I stopped and looked to Edward so he could tell me what Jacob was saying.

"He wants to know why you never told him," Edward explained.

"Like you would believe me. Besides, you have enough on your plate without this," I said, gesturing to my knife, now in its pencil form.

"Could you not tell him before?" Edward asked.

I thought about my answer before speaking. "No, it's not that, it's usually because mortals don't believe us. Many were put in mental institutions, or simply dismissed as pariahs," I said. I thought of Alice, and what she had to endure as a human.

"He's glad you did tell everyone though," Edward said. Jake took this moment to bump his nose against my shoulder.

"Will this change things?" I asked.

Jake shook his head vehemently.

"Good," I replied.


End file.
